Blue Bird
by drinkingteawithhellhounds
Summary: The bird on his chest and the mask on his face only told them so much, but with Robin missing what choice did they have? He came out of nowhere, but why should they trust him? Seriously, what hero goes around calling himself Nightwing?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: To anyone who was reading Secret Origins, sorry, I took it down because I realised it didn't have a plot, I'll repost it when I've got something to continue it with.**

**Reviews, as ever, are apreciated.**

**~Silver**

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><p><span>Blue Bird<span>

Chapter One

The explosion had come from nowhere. Literally.

The team of six young heroes who served as the black-ops division of the Justice League, informally referred to as 'Young Justice', had been scattered across the deserted docklands, and had only heard the explosion after it had gone off, sending a huge plume of smoke and dust into the dark, moonlit air. It didn't take them long to discover who was it the area and soon, five of the six were running towards the site of the explosion, silently praying to whatever and whoever they believed in that their youngest member was still alive, and hadn't been killed by a falling bit of warehouse.

They stopped at the edge of the smoke-dust cloud and Artemis was the first to pull out a rebreather, and put it in her mouth without delay, offering a spare to Wally who took it without comment, also putting it in his mouth.

_(We need to find Robin,)_ Artemis said, via the mental link with her teammates_, (Fast,)_

_(Agreed,)_ Kaldur said, _(We will cover more ground if we split up,)_

Wally shook his head at these words_, (Too risky, if we get lost in that fog you'll have to find us again after,)_

_(We could divide into smaller groups,)_ M'Gann said_, (A two and a three, maybe, that way if we get lost we're still in groups, so we have back up,)_

_(Good idea,)_ Kaldur nodded, _(You go with Superboy, Kid, Artemis and I will go together, keep mental contact at all times,)_

M'Gann nodded as she and Superboy disappeared into the gloom, and Kaldur, Wally and Artemis disappeared in another direction, both groups completely unaware that another person was hidden in the fog.

Nightwing watched the team with mild interest, before moving on, leaping lightly on to the nearest rooftop to get a better overview, still unsure of what had happened and how he'd got from Manhattan to and abandoned section of docks that he was pretty sure was in Coast City.

His eyes, behind the pale blue lenses of his mask, searched the ground, frantically searching for some sign of either Robin or Batman, both of whom he was sure had been standing beside him only moments ago, Robin complaining about Batman and Batman remaining as stoic as ever. Nightwing moved on, leaping lightly along the roof, avoiding occasional holes and skylights, to keep up with the costumed teenagers, reflecting that even if they were villains, which was entirely possible, they would still, most likely, know where the nearest payphone was.

A second group of two came into view, and converged with the first group, making them a group of five. Nightwing frowned as he watched, feeling as though there was something about the group that he should recognise.

He couldn't hear any noise coming from the group, even though they seemed to be conversing, as each was making gestures or nodding on occasion. A dark haired boy with an indistinct logo on his black shirt folded his arms and a red-headed boy in black and grey nodded with a wild gesture, the blonde girl in green smacked him across the back of the head and the two fell into a silent argument, swiftly ended by a dark-skinned boy, also in grey, approaching and putting a hand on either party's shoulder. The fifth of the group, also a red-head, but with vivid green skin, had a hand to her temple, seemingly maintaining the conversation, she was also dressed in black, with a cape flapping around her knees, and had a large red X on her uniform. Nightwing recognised her, although he still didn't move from his place on the nearby roof, not trusting appearances which, in this line of work, were often misleading.

Nightwing gave up on the long distance approach and reached his mask, pressing a hidden switch, instantly his view of the group closed in and he got a better look at them.

"Crap," the hero muttered,

The dark-haired boy with what Nightwing now saw to be a red S-shield on his shirt, looked around sharply, Nightwing fumbled to adjust his vision, which zoomed out as the boy leapt at him with enough force to flatten a rhino.

Nightwing jumped to his feet and ran, with Superboy jumping along behind him, eventually gaining and leaping onto the roof, Nightwing turned to face the teen, several feet away from him, deciding he might as well do something rather than nothing, Nightwing grinned,

"Hi, nice night for a run, isn't it?"

Superboy raised an eyebrow but made no reply and Nightwing, feigning surprise pulled a face of mock disappointment, "Not very talkative, are you?"

Nightwing felt an extra weight appear on the roof behind him and the telltale breeze told him it was the speedster, dressed in black, rather than his customary yellow and red.

Seconds later his suspicions were confirmed as the newcomer asked, "Who's this then?"

"Nightwing," Nightwing replied, turning ever so slightly so he could see the questioner, as he continued, "And now you've got me at a disadvantage, see you know my name but I could only guess at yours,"

"So guess," the blonde girl dressed in green leapt up next to Kid Flash and unshouldered her bow,

"Hmm," Nightwing said, feigning concentration in the search for his former teammate's names, "Mr Silent here would be Super, going by his shirt, making him, by default, Superboy. You," he gestured to Kid Flash, "Look like Kid Flash, have his powers but dress in negative colours, Kid Zoom, maybe?"

Kid Flash scowled, "As in the sidekick of Dr Zoom? Pass, he's a jerk,"

"So, again by default, you're Kid Flash, but you've had a fashion change. And you," Nightwing gestured to Artemis, "Look like you'd be something like Arrowette, but in all honesty you remind me more of Tigress,"

Nightwing allowed himself a smirk at the barely concealed anger on the archer's face, "So, now we've all met, do any of you know the quickest way to drown a fish?"

"No, why?" Superboy asked,

"No reason," Nightwing smirked, "And please tell your Martian friend to stop trying to read my mind,"

Above Superboy Miss Martian appeared, "How could you tell?"

"You need practice," Nightwing said, "Your friends keep me talking so I don't notice you hovering above me, the only reason you'd be hovering above me, invisible, would be to read my mind, simple deduction. That and you're breathing too loud,"

"You're giving us tips?" Artemis asked, "As it happens that was thought up by the smartest guy on our team,"

"Who isn't here now, is he?" Nightwing asked, "The thing is, Arrowette-"

"I'm not Arrowette," Artemis growled, "I'm Artemis,"

"Sorry, Artemis, if this is the Junior Justice League, or something, you're two protégées short, at least," Nightwing said, as Aqualad climbed on to the roof, "Whoops, sorry, make that one short, so, answer me this, where's Robin?"

The team exchanged looks, and Nightwing watched their silent conversation with interest, as they all got more and more worked up, until Aqualad stepped forward,

"We were hoping you could tell us,"

"Nope, sorry," Nightwing said, "Haven't seen him,"

"Why is it that I doubt your word?" Artemis asked,

"Probably because you're a teenage girl with deep trust issues, a pretty messed up family and a reluctance to admit your true feelings, plus you're feeling pressured to do what a parental figure wants you to do while trying to keep yourself from punching fellow students in the face at school, particularly one who continually ambushes you with a camera all the while putting up with the comparison to Green Arrow's last partner, which makes you feel uncomfortable in this team because you feel as though they would rather he is one the team in your place,"

Artemis frowned, "Did you just... psychoanalyse me?"

"Yep," Nightwing said, "And that was just me guessing,"

An arrow flew past his ear, and he smirked, "You are as good as Speedy, so quit worrying,"

Aqualad stepped forward, "Back to the matter at hand, as you have noted we are short of one member, he was in the area of an explosion and you are the only person we have found there afterwards, so I ask again, where is Robin?"

"I will answer again," Nightwing said, "I don't know,"

With these words Nightwing leapt backwards off the roof and landed running, with a tremor in the ground telling him that Superboy wasn't far behind.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hello! I'm back with chapter two, and I hope it lives up to your expectations, and thank you to every one who reviewed, favourited and alerted this story, it means a lot to know my writing is appreciated.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p><span>Blue Bird<span>

Chapter 2

Superboy's first punch would have sent Nightwing flying through the wall, had he been standing there, as it was the blow sailed over his head and into the brick Nightwing had been backed up against, he laughed and slipped away, calling back over his shoulder;

"Is that really the best you can do? My girlfriend hits harder than that!"

"And who's your girlfriend?" Kid Flash asked, sending a volley of short, sharp punches in Nightwing's direction, "Some big-ass alien troll?"

Nightwing flipped away, "No, but my ex is a big-ass alien warrior princess who can shoot lasers from her eyes,"

"Sounds like a charmer," Artemis said, firing a volley of arrows,

Nightwing ducked another oncoming blow from Superboy and kicked backwards, catching Kid Flash in the middle and sending him stumbling backwards into Artemis.

Aqualad lunged, his water-bearers forming two glowing swords, which Nightwing avoided easily, letting out another laugh,

"The sword isn't really your forte is it Aqualad?" he asked,

The Atlantean took a swipe at Nightwing, who once again was no longer there, and replied; "I know the weapon well enough,"

"Your posture's all wrong," Nightwing reappeared, this time behind Aqualad, "Let your movements be fluid, but well timed and sharp,"

Aqualad drove his elbow backwards, into thin air, "Perhaps I should correct myself, I should have said that I know the weapon well enough to defeat you,"

Nightwing drove his elbow into Aqualad's shoulder and the Atlantean's swords dissolved, "Apparently not,"

Nightwing disappeared again and, from the shadows, watched the team of four regroup, he smirked slightly, as the Martian reappeared and he strained he ears to hear what they were saying,

"He was defending his mind well," Miss Martian was saying, "But I saw that he is telling the truth, he doesn't know where Robin is,"

"Or he is merely manipulating his thoughts to look like that," Aqualad said, "Either way, he is our only lead, and I am not keen to return to Batman and tell him what has happened,"

"So now we need to find him," Kid Flash said,

Nightwing rolled his eyes, "I'm over here,"

The team's heads flicked left and right, then Superboy spotted him, with a roar the clone launched at him and Nightwing leapt out of the way, tripping Kid Flash and deflecting Aqualad's attempt to punch him, leaving Nightwing facing Artemis, who had collapsed her bow and was readying herself to go hand-to-hand,

"You've got weapons," the archer said, "Why not use them?"

"How d'you know they're not just for show?" Nightwing asked, "And how come you haven't given Aqualad some pointers on how to properly use a sword?"

"I'm no good with a sword, that was always my sister's area," Artemis replied,

"Last I checked she was three years older than you, Artemis," Nightwing said, "And a gun for hire, I don't think you've got too much competition there,"

Artemis narrowed her eyes, "What do you know about me?"

"More than you want me to," Nightwing replied,

"You talk a lot, don't you?" Artemis said,

"I'm chatty, it's part of my charm," Nightwing replied, glimpsing movement in the corner of his eye, which meant Miss Martian was floating around, waking everybody up,

"What makes you think you have any charm at all?" Artemis asked, turning slightly pink,

"Every woman I've ever met prefers to look at me from behind," Nightwing smiled, "That and, you're blushing,"

"No, I'm not," Artemis spat,

"Of course not," Nightwing smirked, despite a feeling of nausea settling in the pit of his stomach.

Aqualad got to his feet, pulling Kid Flash up with him and Superboy also stood, Miss Martian appearing next to him, a hand pressed to her temple,

"How many times are you going to read my mind before you realise it only works if I want it to?" Nightwing asked,

There was no reply and Nightwing sighed, "Okay, you want to see the inside of my head? I'm sorry, really,"

Nightwing stopped concentrating on blocking his mind, and a series of images shot through Miss Martian's head, so quickly she almost missed them; a funeral for two people, the names on the headstones blurred, more sorrow than she could ever have imagined running through her, a man in a black and white suit, half his face cruelly burnt, right down to the bone bearing down upon her with undisguised venom, an orange and black mask filled her vision causing terror to fill her insides, an open coffin contain a young man, giant, ugly gashes marring his pale skin,

The connection broke and Miss Martian fell back with a gasp, "What was that?"

"What you wanted to see," Nightwing said, the team looked him and saw that he was shaking, "That's why I don't let anyone into my mind, ever."

"I'm sorry, I-"Miss Martian faltered under Nightwing's glare, "We just want to find our friend,"

Nightwing laughed, and the air of tension broke, "What makes you think I know where he is?"

"You were here when he disappeared," Aqualad said,

"No I wasn't," Nightwing said, "I was in Bludhaven, with my youngest brother,"

"Ha, nice try," Kid Flash said, "Bludhaven's on the other side of the country, not like you could get from there to here in the space of two and a half minutes,"

"Says the guy who can break the sound barrier in his sneakers," Nightwing said, "How do you know I can't teleport or whatever?"

"If you had that power you'd have used it by now," Artemis said,

"You are still making the same fundamental mistake, Artemis, you assume I'm telling the truth," Nightwing said, "Telling you would be playing fair, I don't play, I don't reveal my advantage until it's too late for any of you guys to do anything about it,"

"So, you don't have powers?" Superboy asked,

"That would be telling," Nightwing said with a smirk, "But by all means cut loose, just know that I carry kryptonite,"

"You're bluffing," Artemis said, "You said yourself; you never reveal your advantage,"

"Maybe I am," Nightwing shrugged, "Have fun finding out,"

With these words he threw down some smoke pellets and vanished into the fog, Superboy followed and, with remarkable stealth, charged, catching Nightwing off guard and sending him flying into a wall.

"Ow," the vigilante deadpanned, wincing slightly as he regained his footing, "Thanks for that Supey, like I need more cracked ribs,"

Nightwing leaned heavily against the brickwork and began feeling his side, "Four cracked ribs, two broken, three bruised, multiple lacerations due to gunfire," his hand moved up slightly, "three torn stitches," up to his head, "Mild concussion and oil burns, and not forgetting the poison,"

"Poison?" Miss Martian looked slightly alarmed,

"Yeah, I'd say a slow acting distillation of arsenic, but I'd need a med-lab to be sure," Nightwing said, as though lethal poisoning was something he dealt with regularly,

"And your other injuries?" Aqualad asked, despite himself,

"Same fight, except the concussion and broken ribs, that was you lot," Nightwing said, "But it's weird, because usually this guy tries to run me through this great big sword,"

"Maybe you were being particularly annoying?" Artemis suggested, "I'm pretty sure I'd be able to sympathise,"

"Ha, ha," Nightwing growled, "How d'you know he's not a bad guy?" he slid a little down the wall and blinked rapidly,

"Are you okay?" Kid Flash asked,

Nightwing sat, heavily, in the rubble, "Seriously, multiple fractures. Lacerations and concussion coupled with a slow acting toxin, how d'you think I feel?"

Nightwing blinked several more times, trying, in vain, to clear his vision before he blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: And we're back! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourited, alerted and generally made me feel like my writing is appreciated, and thanks to SakuraTenshi36092 who was kind enough to spend her Thursday lunch time beta-reading this for me.**

**And for those of you worried about Robin, I'm writing a sister story for what happens to him, which I'll probably publish after I've finished this, after that? Who knows? I might write a sequel.**

**Reviews appreciated.**

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><p><span>Blue Bird<span>

Chapter 3

The first thing Nightwing noticed when he woke was that he was lying down.

The second was that, whatever he was lying down on, he was handcuffed to it.

With a groan, Nightwing pushed himself upright and deftly examined his restraints, which attached his wrist to a hospital gurney in a medbay that had clearly had minimal use in the past year, either that or it had been at the mercy of Alfred in a particularly foul mood.

Nightwing laughed softly at the thought and set about making his hand as narrow as possible, wincing slightly as he heard the telltale pop of a finger being dislocated, with a final tug Nightwing's hand came free and he pushed his fingers back into their original positions without too much preamble.

"Never thought I'd actually find that trick useful," he murmured as, with an unnecessary flip, he vacated the bed, landing on gleaming floor without out so much as a thud from the impact. Nightwing made for the door, but pulled back, noticing, for the first time, a clipboard at the end of his bed, curiosity piqued, Nightwing picked it up, reading it at a speed that would have made Kid Flash jealous,

"Nite-Wing?" the vigilante mouthed, "Now that's just rude,"

He flexed his fingers and pulled the pen from the loop at the top of the flimsy plastic, without further ado he set about correcting the spelling errors, and then scanned the summery of behaviour section at the bottom.

"They make me sound like Ravager," Nightwing muttered, "Still; I guess it isn't deliberate, seeing as she isn't on the team yet,"

His eyes, still behind his mask, slid up the page to the diagnosis, "Distillation of cyanide, touché Slade,"

With these words the clipboard was tossed onto the bed and Nightwing made for the door, freezing inches away from the cold steel at the sounds of voices,

"_Rahat_," he searched frantically for a hiding place, spotting one above his head. Nightwing hoisted himself into the vents with seconds to spare.

The door slid open and a figure in a dark cape entered, followed by a slightly shorter one in blue, the latter was painted red, and Nightwing didn't need his genius-level IQ to know that it was only a matter of time before either one of the entities below sensed his presence.

Slowly and carefully Nightwing slid backwards down the shaft, away from a seemingly indifferent Red Tornado and what promised to be a very angry Dark Knight. Finally, Nightwing reached a junction and took the opportunity to turn around and crawl head first, he took a left, then a right, then hit a dead end and had to double back, taking another left and coming to a computer terminal,

"Finally," He muttered, "Thought I'd be trapped here forever, and then Batgirl would send Ravager and Impulse after me, that'd be embarrassing,"

Nightwing mentally slapped himself and hissed in frustration, "Focus, idiot, no-one's coming to get you,"

He pulled a cable from his glove and hooked it up, "C'mon, c'mon, I need a date here, anything?" the screen turned red, "No? Guess I'll find out the hard way then,"

Nightwing unplugged and crawled several feet further along until the soft rumble of voices could be heard below him,

"I get the feeling I'm going to regret this," he whispered, and, before he could change his mind Nightwing kicked out, sending a loose grille crashing to the floor, hopefully not on anyone's head, and leaping out after it and through the living room with hurried, "Excuse me!"

Leaving five confused superteens in his wake, Nightwing heard Kid Flash ask, "What the hell just happened?" before he disappeared around the corner,

It took the team five full seconds to realise that Nightwing, whom they mistakenly thought had kidnapped their youngest member, had just torn through with all the subtlety of Superman, and chase after him, by which time he was already safe in the rafters of the training room, the familiar silver platform dark and unused with the absence of Black Canary.

Both doors, on opposite sides of the room, slid open, Batman and Red Tornado entering through one, the team, save the missing Robin, through the other.

"What happened?"

Batman's voice would have left any criminal worth a cell at Arkham trembling, given Superman nightmares and caused Brainiac to develop irrational fears of the dark, and from his perch in the shadows near the ceiling Nightwing raised an eyebrow in admiration at the team's resolve, as not one of them had collapsed in terror under the extreme pressure of the patented Bat-Glare.

Aqualad stepped forward, "He must have exited the medbay through the ventilation system, he was probably travelling through it to find a safe place to exit and decided to try and get past us rather than risk running into any senior league members,"

"Try and succeed," Artemis commented, "The only place he could have gone is here, and the only way out is the door you and Red Tornado came through,"

"In other words," Kid Flash said, "He's vanished, again,"

"Maybe not," Batman said, softly, "Step back,"

The team and Red Tornado did as instructed and Batman's eyes locked on Nightwing, who tensed his muscles, ready to move at less than a second's notice, Batman waited, sizing his enemy up, Nightwing, subconsciously, did the same.

Without warning, Batman pounced and a Batarang was suddenly slicing through the air towards him, Nightwing waited, silently counting down to the last second; three, two, one. The titanium blade lodged in the rafter where Nightwing had been crouched only seconds before. With speed and agility comparable to a cat's Nightwing was flipping along the girder, playing for valuable time while he scrounged for some sort of plan which involved his survival and ability to walk being maintained.

Deciding to buy himself some time Nightwing decided to do something that would probably get him in serious trouble in about three years, thankfully this Batman had never met the Mad Hatter,

"Twinkle, twinkle little Bat, how I wonder where Bird's at, up above the world you fly, like a tea-tray in the sky, twinkle, twinkle little Bat how I wonder where Bird's at!" he sang, reflecting as he did that, even if this Batman had never met the Hatter, it was probably still a bad idea to mention Robin around him when the kid was missing.

Another Batarang embedded itself in the metal, millimetres away from Nightwing's left hand, an idea struck him and, with cheeriness that would have turned Joker green with jealously he flung it back with a cry of, "Careful! You could have killed me with that!"

The returning Batarang lodged in the wall above Superboy's head as Batman rolled out of the way and only Miss Martian's warning hand on his shoulder stopped him from launching at Nightwing with everything he had.

Batman straightened up, "You want to fight? Come down and do it properly,"

Nightwing rolled his eyes, "I don't want to fight, it was Justice League junior that attacked me,"

"After you ran," Artemis said,

"After Superboy leapt at me for no good reason," Nightwing said, "Either way you slice it it's your fault"

"Why don't you come down here and say that?" Superboy growled,

"I highly doubt my girlfriend, team, protégées and mentor will appreciate me getting into a fight which involves me losing my head,"

"Mentor?" Miss Martian asked, "You were trained?"

"Emphasis on the past here," Nightwing replied, "I got to the point where I was as good as him and got tired of his perpetual state of angst,"

"Never mind that," Artemis said, "You said you had students, as in plural,"

"Yes, and only half of them are ones my former mentor approves of," Nightwing said, "The other half he either doesn't trust or tried to kill Superman,"

"One of your students tried to kill Superman?" Kid Flash asked, "You clearly didn't train them very well if they failed,"

"The point was to fail," Nightwing said, "She was trying to scare him into stepping up and actually acknowledging a friend, properly, instead of just treating him like a dog to be trained,"

"I think I like this girl, whoever she is," Superboy said, folding his arms, "But that doesn't change the fact that you were where Robin disappeared,"

Nightwing didn't reply, and Batman scowled, his eyes raking the shadows for any sign of the younger man.

Finally Nightwing spoke, "You want me to come down and fight? Fine,"

He landed softly in the middle of the ring, an eskrima stick in each hand and a neutral expression on his face as he fixed Batman with a glare, "Bring. It. On."

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><p><strong>AN: And, just to be annoying, I'll leave it there. <strong>**Just kidding, I'm not trying to be annoying, it just comes naturally. That and I want the next chapter to be written well, so...**

**Next time: Batman VS Nightwing!**

**Until then,**

**~Silver**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Here it is! After a week of waiting here is the all out Batman Vs Nightwing battle. Which I probably won't do any justice because I'm not all that good at fight scenes. The sister story where we find out what happens to Robin is now up, under the title Red Wings, if you're interested.**

**Thanks for all the reviews so far, they are always appreciated.**

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><p><span>Blue Bird<span>

Chapter 4

Batman didn't waste any time in making the first move and within half a second another Batarang was soaring through the air, Nightwing avoided it easily but made no comment as he weighed his advantages; speed, agility and, possibly, stamina, against Batman's experience, strength and strategic thinking, in the unlikely event of him actually winning this bout, unlikely, not impossible, there was still the Team and Red Tornado to consider, still hanging back around the edges of the arena.

Nightwing shrugged and charged, making as if to punch Batman in the chest but dodging to one side at the last minute and somersaulting past the man's head, before lashing out backwards and delivering a strong kick to Batman's shoulder. Batman caught Nightwing's ankle in a vice-like grip and the latter smirked, bringing up his other leg to knock his ankle free before he brought up his wrists to fend off the blows that followed.

Sensing a gap, Nightwing leapt into the air and used Batman's shoulder as a launch pad to propel himself back towards the ceiling.

"This takes me back," he called down, sheathing his eskrimas, "Back when I was a trainee I'd pull that trick all the time, I thought it up when I was, like, seven,"

"What sort of people train a seven year old to fight like that?" Kid Flash asked,

"It wasn't for fighting, Speedy, it was their job," Nightwing replied, smirking at the look on Kid Flash's face at the deliberate error, Nightwing stayed balanced on his perch, several inches away from a stray Batarang, as he talked Nightwing slowly inched closer to it, "They were professional acrobats, they worked at a circus and everything,"

His fingers closed around the cold metal and wiggled it free, having done this he dived back for the floor, twisted midair and landed on his feet, knees bent slightly to break the fall,

"Round two?" he offered,

Batman didn't speak, but the slits in his cowl narrowed and, once again, Nightwing shrugged, "Suit yourself,"

He dived and delivered what would have been a bone breaking kick, had Batman not sensed the move coming and blocked, sending Nightwing crashing to the floor,

"Ow," the hero deadpanned, "That's going to hurt in the morning,"

"Stay down." Batman said,

For the third time that... whatever time it was, he hadn't been able to keep count, Nightwing shrugged, "No thanks,"

He sprung, with surprising speed for someone having just been floored by Batman, and delivered a punch, quickly followed through with a kick and flipped away, Batman hurled a line after him and Nightwing felt it lash around his ankles, flipping over he slashed at the cable with his borrowed Batarang and neatly fell to the floor. The useless line fell, slightly less neatly, seconds later.

"C'mon, Bats, I'm not an amateur, I have actually been to Gotham before, so I know Catwoman's favourite trick when I see it,"

Batman tossed aside the other half of the useless line and his frown, if it were possible, deepened, before he could say anything Nightwing raised an eyebrow,

"Judging by the stunned expression on Miss Martian's face I'd say you just told her to try and telepathically find out my ID, and probably where Robin is too," when there was no reply he continued, "Sorry, Bats, not going to happen, and seriously, what will it take for you people to get that I don't know where he is? Genuinely, I don't, I've told you, Miss M over there has read my mind twice, I suppose you could call Wonder Woman in, or Zatara, but it wouldn't do you any good, because I don't know, and I offered to help, but when I wake up here I'm treated like a criminal, quite frankly I'm hurt,"

"We aren't trying to be nice," Kid Flash said, "We're trying to get our teammate back,"

"And I'm sure my team is doing just the same," Nightwing said,

He charged and leapt into the air, twisting so it was his feet, rather than his head, that were going towards Batman, who blocked the quick volley of oncoming attacks and repaid Nightwing with a swift and powerful punch which sent him into the air again, Nightwing rolled his eyes and twisted over, four times in a row before landing again.

No sooner than his feet had touched the floor than Nightwing moved, dodging a punch, driving his elbow into Batman's middle and sweeping the dark knight's feet out from under him.

Batman hit the floor, but he was up again so quickly barely anyone registered the defeat other than Nightwing and Batman himself, who narrowed his eyes,

"Start talking,"

"With pleasure," Nightwing said, "But can I get some medical attention first?"

The barest nod from Batman sent Nightwing back towards the medbay, the team hurrying behind him in a stunned sort of silence until they reached the allotted room and Nightwing perched on a bed,

"What kind of medical treatments are you in need of?" Aqualad asked, a hard edge to his voice making it perfectly clear that he had not forgotten the fact that ten minutes ago they had been enemies,

"Just bandages and disinfectant, thanks," Nightwing replied, not missing the hostility but not commenting as the Atlantean fetched the required materials,

Nightwing twisted his belt buckle, a black disc, nearly invisible with the rest of his uniform, and it let out a shrill beep, his uniform lightened slightly and he began taking off his gloves, looking up to find the team staring at him, he shrugged,

"What? You think you're the only guys with stealth mode?"

"I do not see how you would need it," Aqualad commented, handing over the green box he was carrying,

"You need stealth for certain environments," Nightwing said, "The mode before was normal, city, colours, but I've got underwater, jungle, just plain invisible and the mode it's in now is so I can take it off,"

"So... You couldn't before?" Artemis asked,

"Nope," Nightwing finished pulling off his gloves and stood to remove his shirt, the sight of which nearly caused Artemis' eyes to pop out,

"Wow,"

Nightwing, who evidently got this a lot, ignored the comment and reached for the disinfectant, wincing slightly as he dabbed the stinging liquid on to several wide gashes and several more purple bruises, standing out, livid, against his tanned body, which was thinner than it had looked under several layers of Kevlar.

Nightwing reached for the bandages and raised his eyebrows at the team, "You just going to stand there all day? If you've got questions, ask away,"

"How come Batman decide to hear you out?" Kid Flash asked,

"To him, every fight is a test, and a chance to get to know the opponent, did you know he introduced himself to Superman by throwing him across fifth avenue in Metropolis?" he shook his head, "Anyway, clearly I somehow gained Batman's trust, or however close to trust he gets, and he decided to hear me out,"

"Why would he fight then hear you out?" Superboy asked,

"Not sure anyone's been able to understand that, ever," Nightwing said,

"And... your student? The one who attacked Superman?" Superboy asked,

"Oh, yeah, she's got a temper," Nightwing said, "Almost every person she's ever met she could have running away in terror within five minutes,"

"Except Superman," Artemis interjected,

"Hmm, yeah, I'm not sure how that turns out," Nightwing said, "But Superman was being obnoxiously stubborn, and she happened to have a chunk of kryptonite, I considered it a learning point in the values of heroism,"

He finished bandaging and replaced his shirt and gloves, he twisted his belt and the uniform returned to its original colouring, Nightwing stood,

"Let's go see what the big Bat wants."

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><p><strong>AN: For those of you interested in how the time travel effects the timelines, there's a sort of explanation in the next chapter, both here and in Red Wings, until next week...<strong>

**~SilverXDawn**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Thanks for all the reviews guys, and the concrit and the encouragement. Unfortunately this one hasn't been beta'd, so any mistakes (gramatical or otherwise) are all me, feel free to bite my head off.**

**Reviews still appreciated.**

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><p><span>Blue Bird<span>

Chapter 5

Nightwing sat in the interrogation room, tapping his fingers on the table top, waiting for Batman to speak from where he sat, across from him in another chair.

"Well..." Nightwing said, "This is awkward,"

Batman didn't reply and the tension in the room increased tenfold, Nightwing yawned slightly and sat back in his chair, "So the medbay... Do you get Agent A in every month to dust it or something?"

He met Batman's glare coolly, "I'll take that as a 'no', then,"

"Who are you?" Batman said, finally,

"That's a pretty big area, Bats," Nightwing said, "Care to be little more specific?"

"Name?"

"Nightwing." Nightwing replied, "N-I-G-H-T-W-I-N-G. All one word with a capital letter at the beginning, not any one of the seven and a half variations Kid Flash came up with for my med-form,"

"Your real name?" Batman asked,

"No can do, y'know with the whole secret ID thing? Sure you understand B.W." Nightwing smiled wickedly at Batman's apparent shock, an expression gone as quickly as it had appeared,

"Who taught you?" Batman said,

"Depends which bit," Nightwing said, "And I know you were deeply analysing my fighting style during our little bout so tell me, what do you think?"

"Your combat style is varied, which suggests several instructors, injuries, if you have any, don't deter you, suggesting either you're used to them or were trained by someone who can't be injured or doesn't care if they are, which explains the evidence of military training,"

"What can I say?" Nightwing said, "You can try all you like but there are some things you just don't forget, especially if they're learned the hard way. Those particular tidbits were learned by force from Deathstroke the Terminator,"

Batman didn't comment on this and continued, "Your style is largely based on agility and evasion, which is backed up by your use of acrobatics and your claim that your parents were training you to be a professional acrobat,"

"Right again," Nightwing said, "Two shows a night every night, three on weekends, no nets, sometimes over hungry lions, from when I was six and a half to when I was nine,"

"Approximately fifteen years ago," Batman said,

"Well, for me anyway," Nightwing said, "By the way, what's the date?"

"Friday, 6th of January, 2012," Batman said,

"Okay, so it's about five years ago for you," Nightwing said, "And since you asked my name I'll give you my initials. R.J.'D'.G.W." he sketched inverted commas around the 'D', "Anything else?"

"If I understand you correctly,"

"No mean feat," Nightwing interjected,

Batman ignored him, "You are from the future,"

Nightwing nodded, "By about a decade,"

"Which suggests you are already active in this time," Batman said, "Who as, and where?"

"That would probably make the timeline explode," Nightwing said, "Y'know, more than it already has,"

"Meaning what?"

"Umm... my being here wasn't on the future Justice League's records when I left, so that means something is manipulating the timeline, either that or me and everyone I come into contact with in this time gets a sudden bout of amnesia, which is unlikely,"

"So, this is a problem," Batman said, "Interfering with timelines tends to cause a universal reset, which puts stress on dimensional boundaries,"

"It's more likely that the universe will just compensate around it, so all the stuff still happens, but details will change, like my protégée, the one who tries to kill Superman, might not do it for the same reason, or an Arkham breakout will happen next week rather than tomorrow, and no, that isn't a prediction that's just a random guess, but you get the general idea, so by the time I get back to my time everyone else involved will remember it happening too and the universe will balance itself out,"

"And Robin?"

Nightwing shrugged, "Odds are he's in my time, which puts him in the middle of a fight with a dimension-jumping supervillain within twenty blocks of at least one member of my team, I'd say he's safe for now,"

"Your team?" Batman very clearly raised an eyebrow,

"Am I at liberty to say?" Nightwing asked, "They're a future variation of this one, except none of these guys are on the main roster any more, which I lead,"

Batman made no comment, he got up and left without another word and Nightwing heard the door lock behind him,

"Okay, I guess we'll have to do this the hard way then," Nightwing muttered,

He leapt onto the table and pulled the grille out of the vents, dropping it to the floor where it landed with a clang. With a grunt Nightwing hauled himself in and, for the second time that night, found himself crawling through the vents,

"This really shouldn't become a habit," Nightwing muttered,

He took a left, two rights and another left before dropping into an empty corridor and taking another right, and walking into the living room, where all team, minus the still missing Robin, were stood, gesturing silently at each other and seemingly oblivious to Nightwing's presence.

He watched quietly, in vague amusement as the conversation escalated and then, just at the time when he thought everyone would be most tense, he coughed, and managed to stop himself from laughing as everyone jumped several inches into the air simultaneously.

"Uh, hi?" Nightwing offered weakly,

"What the-" Artemis bit back a curse and struggled to regain her composure, "So, trained by Deathstroke, huh?"

"Yep," Nightwing said,

"The merc?" Kid Flash asked,

"One and the same," Nightwing agreed, "In the end I told him I wasn't interested, beat the crap out of him and went home,"

"You actually beat him?" Artemis raised an eyebrow in grudging admiration, "How'd you fix that?"

"You'll just have to wait and find out," Nightwing said, "For you it'll happen in about three years, unless the timeline goes so wobbly that it ends up never happening, which is unlikely,"

"You are from the future," Aqualad said, "and suggested that we knew you in this time,"

"Yeah, and no, sorry I can't tell you who, Flash Boy would blab," Nightwing said,

"Not even a hint?" Miss Martian asked,

"I wore a cape," Nightwing said, "That's all you're getting, and don't be surprised if Batman leaps out of nowhere and attacks me again, I might have broken out of the interrogation room,"

"That was stupid," Artemis said, "But, with him, if you got out it's probably because he wanted you to,"

"Yep," Nightwing said, "Knowing Bats he's probably going through every database on the planet, using his mad detective skills to work out my ID," he looked thoughtful for a moment then shouted at the ceiling, "Hey, Batman, if you're listening and missed it during the fight, I pulled my parent's signature move, it was a four!"

"What was that about?" Superboy asked,

"Just giving him a hint," Nightwing smirked, "It's not like I'm doing anything wrong,"

"Well I am," Kid Flash announced, "And that is that I'm beat and I've nearly been up twelve straight hours, I'm going to bed,"

With that he was gone in blur of red and yellow and Artemis yawned, "As much as I hate to agree with Baywatch, it's six in the evening, I've been up since six yesterday morning, so I'm crashing too,"

She walked away, Superboy and Miss Martian following without comment, Aqualad stayed and waited for the sound of footsteps to fade,

"I know you will probably be unable to say," He began, "But I overheard part of your interrogation with Batman, you are on this team in the future,"

"Yes, but by that time all of you have left to do your own thing," Nightwing said,

"Even so," Aqualad said, "Do you know who the mole is?"

Nightwing hesitated, "No, I never found out, I don't think anyone did,"

"Thank you," Aqualad said, "I take it you know where the guest rooms are?"

Nightwing nodded "Yeah, thanks, but I'm just going to sit here for a bit,"

"As you wish," Aqualad said,

He left and Nightwing performed a flip, landing gracefully on the back of the sofa and balancing there, until he heard the door open,

"You figured it out then?"

Batman nodded, although Nightwing wasn't looking the acrobat sensed the movement, he leapt lightly to the floor and turned on his former mentor, "What gave me away?"

"Everything," Batman said, "I'm guessing it was deliberate, everything from your blatant giving out of information, such as your parents profession and signature move, to the even more subtle details, it all added up to you being one person,"

"Whelming, Batman," Nightwing deadpanned, "And I'm pleased that you got it and all, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell the team,"

"I won't," Batman replied, "But in exchange I need you to do a reconnaissance mission,"

"When and where?" Nightwing smiled, slightly at Batman's seriousness,

"One hour, in Metropolis." Batman said, "I need Superman to get a message."

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><p><strong>AN: Ooh! So Batman worked it out? And Nightwing has to visit Superman? I think we all know what message that will be :)<strong>

**Until next week folks!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Well... it's kind of awkward because I didn't update last week, so I'm really, really, REALLY sorry about that. My fault entirely, so thanks to all you guys who reviewed and thanks to SakuraTenshi36092 for betaing and dealing with my over-use of commas (because I really do over use them).**

**Reveiws make me happy, happy me means happy bird boy, maybe.**

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><p><span>Blue Bird<span>

Chapter 6

Another ring of steam issued from Nightwing's lips as he perched, rather haphazardly, on top of the golden globe that topped Metropolis's Daily Planet building and watched yet another Ferris Air commercial flight pass overhead. It was heading from Gotham to Dubai, and it was kind of disconcerting for Nightwing to watch it, as he distinctly remembered boarding it ten years ago, for a conference which now, apparently, wasn't happening until next month. He rubbed his head, time travel was confusing, take tonight as an example; in exchange for him not telling the team who Nightwing was, Batman had sent the vigilante to deliver a message to the man of steel, while Nightwing remembered also sending Rose Wilson, A.K.A. Ravager, to deliver the same message in the year 2018, six years in the future (or four in the past, depending on how you looked at it), the encounter between Deathstroke's daughter and the last son of Krypton had culminated in a concussion for Superman, three broken ribs for Ravager and nearly ten thousand dollars in property damage as well as definitive contact between Superman and Superboy.

Nightwing winced at the memory, but smirked at the outcome, hoping that wouldn't change. He shrugged; there was always the possibility Superman wouldn't listen to him. A door below opened and Nightwing looked down in time to see the top of Lois Lane's head appear, he smiled to himself as she pretended to adjust her watch and proceeded to look up expectantly.

"Ms Lane?"

Lois jumped and turned to face Nightwing, now on the rooftop behind her, "Who are you supposed to be?"

"A concerned citizen," Nightwing replied, "I needed to talk to Superman about something and was wondering if you'd know how to contact him."

Lois folded her arms and tried to glare, an effect somewhat lessened by her blatant attempts to see Nightwing from behind, "If you're expecting me to jump off the building you're out of luck."

Nightwing shrugged, "I assure you Ms Lane I wasn't expecting anything like that, I more had in mind the signal watch Superman gave you as a means of contact should you fall off a building."

"Really?" Lois looked mildly impressed, "The only way you'd know about those is if you had one, so why not use yours?"

"I left it in my other pants," Nightwing said with a smile, "And Batman was reluctant to lend me his,"

"I see," Lois looked amused, "And what business do you have with him... uh, sorry I didn't catch your name."

"Nightwing," Nightwing introduced himself, "and I solemnly swear that it has nothing to do with killing him, or destroying the world or anything, he just isn't answering his JLA communicator."

"There's a good reason for that," Nightwing and Lois turned to face Superman, who was hovering just off the edge of the twenty-four storey building, cape billowing behind him and a frown on his face.

"'You alright Lois?" He asked,

"Yes, I'm fine, I wanted an interview but Nightwing here," she gestured to the hero, "Seems to have important League business he needs to discuss with you, so I'll be going."

"Actually, Ms Lane," Nightwing called after her, "Could you stay? This particular issue is one Superman tends to worm out of, and if you're a witness that makes it more difficult for him."

"Okay," Lois said, "Now I'm very curious."

Superman's scowl deepened, "Nightwing?"

"After the Kandorian legend," Nightwing said, "Now that that's out of the way, Batman asked me to deliver a message."

"Really?" Superman said, "And he couldn't come himself because?"

"Two reasons," Nightwing replied, "First is that he's tried twice and it doesn't seem to work, the other is that he's a bit busy looking for Robin, which you would know if you had picked up your comm. and found out rather than assuming he was trying to get you to bond with Superboy."

"What?"

"Superboy, you know; the clone of you, from Cadmus? The one who is currently running rampant with uncontrollable powers and deep running anger issues? The one who wants to be like you but can't because he doesn't know how to fly? Ring any bells?"

Superman narrowed his eyes, "What do you want?"

"Batman says that if you don't start teaching him, at minimum, he's going to end up killing someone by accident," Nightwing said, "And that this would be your fault because Superboy, who now has a real name, by the way, wouldn't know any better because you didn't teach him how to use his powers."

"And why couldn't Batman tell me this himself?" Superman asked,

"You really pay no attention when people talk to you, do you?" Nightwing said, "And just be glad it is me, if I wasn't here a crazy, teenage, kryptonite-enhanced assassin would pop up in six years and try to do you in over it."

"What makes you say that?" Superman asked,

"I'm from ten years in the future, Superman, I've got rough foreknowledge minus the alterations my presence here creates," Nightwing tapped the side of his head, "Think about it, Superboy will only wait so long."

As he leapt backwards off the building Nightwing smirked, through the wind he distinctly heard Lois say; "A clone huh? And when were you planning on telling me, the honeymoon?"

Nightwing let out a laugh and fired a jump line; it definitely wasn't Superman's lucky day. He swung from roof to roof for ten minutes before Superman caught up with him, a couple of blocks away from the nearest zeta tube.

"You said Robin was missing," was all he said,

Nightwing let out a snort, "Oh good, you had me worried, for a second there I thought you were actually going to talk to Superboy or something," he allowed a note of distain enter his voice, "Your brain must be smaller than your parent's henhouse, Clark."

Superman pulled up short and Nightwing dropped out of the sky, flipping several times as he fell and landing neatly beside the zeta point, shaking his head at Superman's stunned expression as he activated it.

"Recognised, Robin, B-0-1, Superman, 0-1,"

Then they were at Mount Justice, Nightwing raised an eyebrow at Batman, who was standing by the controls, "Computer malfunction?"

"Of a sort," Batman agreed, ignoring Superman completely, "Get some rest,"

Nightwing shrugged, "Don't really need it, but if you say so."

He left Batman to unpick Superman at the seams and made for the living quarters, then a thought struck him, and instead of turning left to the bedrooms, he turned right and ended up in the control room.

Nightwing sat at a console and opened a holoscreen and keyboard; very quickly he began to type.

"Okay, mini-me, hack through that," Nightwing murmured, setting the digital lock on the file for the day he disappeared. Nightwing stood and yawned, despite what he had said to Batman, he really was tired; he deactivated the computer and headed for the living quarters.

**-THIS IS WHERE A LINE BREAK THINGY SHOULD BE-**

Meanwhile, ten years in the future, the main computer screen in the control room of Mount Justice lit up. Robin looked up in alarm and turned to Ravager, "Is it supposed to do that?"

"No," the girl replied, "Where's Cyborg when you need him, huh?"

"Last I checked, he was with Batgirl and Beast Boy hunting down Warp, Impulse is trying to deal with those other Robins, I think, or he's done and with the others, and you said back in the gym that Batman is out of the country." Robin said,

"Don't be a smart-ass, that was rhetorical." Ravager growled, "But seeing as you've got such a good memory, bird boy, what did I say when you first arrived about records on this thing?"

"It could be hidden with a digital time lock," Robin replied, "And if that was the case Nightwing might have left you clues."

"Correct," the girl said, "Now let's find out what happened."

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><p><strong>AN: And... we'll find out what's in that file next week in chapter four of Red Wings, meanwhile, next week here; the zeta room was trashed and Superboy wants to know why. So he asks Nightwing. (Somehow turning what should have been a three minute conversation into a chapter-long bonding session. :)<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Here's the new chapter and I'm sorry it's so late... As promised a bit of Supey bonding, beta-ed by SakuraTenchi36092. Enjoy and leave me a review if you can. :)**

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><p><span>Blue Bird<span>

Chapter 7

Nightwing was awake before anyone else the next morning and immediately registered that his memories had shifted around, which was not only annoying, but also gave him a headache the size of Ohio. Humming slightly, to ease his boredom more than anything, Nightwing pulled on his gloves and boots and left to find the kitchen and a jug of coffee. Not saying a word to Batman, who was standing by the counter, evidently waiting for him, as he did.

"Well?"

Nightwing jumped at the word, "Well, what?"

"Remember anything?" Batman asked.

"He's being dropped off, I don't know when or who by, but it'll be at the old Cadmus place, Deathstroke the Terminator's on guard duty."

"Slade Wilson."

"That's the one," Nightwing swigged his coffee, "He's more dangerous than he looks and has a daughter who's just about as cute as that T-Rex you've got in the Bat Cave."

"She's nearly eight," Batman commented.

"And trained by the most dangerous man on the planet," Nightwing pointed out, "If she came across the Joker she'd do considerably more than beat him in a laughing contest."

"Hardly your best idea," Batman said.

"I was nine, I won, you knocked him out and I lost my voice, between you and me I think Superman was actually glad," Nightwing smirked, "Speaking of which, how did it go?"

"He offered to be on standby for the team until Robin is found, and he said he'll train Superboy once every three weeks," Batman said, "I hoped for better."

"If things go on the way I remember Rose Wilson pops up in couple of years and persuades him," Nightwing said, "I wouldn't worry too much."

Batman nodded and turned to leave, abandoning Nightwing to find breakfast on his own. Which he did by way of stale toast and yet more coffee, something most other people might have found unappealing, but as a mid-level cop in his civilian identity Nightwing was used to it, there were some days when his caffeine count was higher than Batman's, and that was saying a lot given the amount of coffee the man inhaled.

He was on his sixth cup by the time the others entered, all seemingly more awake than the vigilante, although to be fair he had pulled two all-nighters and, although one of them had mostly been with Batman, whom had conveniently disappeared during his fight with Deathstroke and reappeared to inform him of an immediate trip to Europe, meaning he missed the fight with Warp entirely, that didn't make it any easier.

"Morning," he managed to stifle a yawn.

"Hey," was the only reply he gleaned, and surprisingly it was Superboy who spoke, "Is there a reason why the zeta room looks like it's been trashed?"

"Probably Batman breaking out the kryptonite," Nightwing failed to stifle this yawn as he replied, "He dropped the conventional approach and 'talked' to Superman the old fashioned way."

Five collective sets of eyebrows shot up; "Superman?" the clone asked,

Nightwing nodded and hopped off the stool he was sat on, "See you."

Behind his back the teenagers exchanged glances and Superboy set off after him, only catching up with the vigilante in the gym, where Nightwing was already going through a routine that only made sense to him.

"Superman was here?" Superboy called up, as Nightwing flipped twice, spun and landed,

"Yes, he was, Bats sent me to talk with him," Nightwing leapt into the air again.

"What about?" Superboy watched as Nightwing did another set of aerial twirls.

"You." Nightwing replied, bouncing off a wall, "I'm not too sure on the outcome but if it doesn't work out I've got back up coming in a couple of years to beat sense into him properly."

Silence fell as Nightwing continued to bounce off the walls, floor and ceiling while Superboy watched; "How did you get your name?"

Nightwing looked mildly surprised but kept his balance as he did yet another flip; "I needed something dark and broody, because I work in a city which is like Gotham only worse, and I work with Batman on occasion, so I couldn't mess up his dark and broodiness. But I wanted something personal, like my first persona, that was really personal, but I wanted to name myself something from a bit later in my life, so I thought about my early career. Thus, Nightwing was born!"

Nightwing cast a sideways glance at Superboy as he landed neatly on the floor; "What about you?"

Superboy shrugged, "Cadmus gave me my name, kind of ripped off Superman's though."

"And your civilian ID?" Nightwing asked, "And don't tell me you don't have one, Connor Kent."

"M'Gann and J'onn gave it to me," Superboy said, "J'onn was suggesting John as my first name, but it seemed too, normal."

"My dad was called John," Nightwing said, "He really wasn't normal, but it was in a good sort of way, but everyone expected him to be normal because of his name, that way he always surprised them."

Superboy raised an eyebrow, "I never really thought of it like that, but yeah, I didn't want to be normal, and with two other 'John's in the room I wanted something different. So when M'Gann suggested 'Connor' I took it, but it grew on me and now I feel more like Connor than I do Superboy. If that even makes sense."

"Trust me; it's better than feeling more like Nightwing than Richard." Nightwing said, "It's better to feel more human than hero. Anyway, what about 'Kent'? Who thought of that?"

"J'onn," Superboy replied, "In honour of Kent Nelson, apparently."

At this Nightwing laughed, and it was such a joyful sound that Superboy took a step back in shock, "What?"

Nightwing cough a few times then his laughter subsided, "I never actually found out how you got your name, and now I know, Ravager would probably get a kick out of that one."

"Ravager?" Superboy asked, confused.

"Teammate of mine," Nightwing clarified, "She has a kind of warped sense of humour."

He leapt into the air again and did several flips, Superboy still watching, perplexed.

"What's it like to fly?" the clone asked.

Nightwing fell to the floor and landed on his feet; "I wish I knew."

"But you-" Superboy gesture at the ceiling, "What was that, then?"

"Tricks," Nightwing said, "I might have known how to fly once, but if I ever did, I forgot when I turned nine."


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Well... This is awkward.**

**I'm so sorry for being so unspeakably late... Eh, completely my fault there... Got bogged down with work, Legend of Korra, Young Justice, yada, yada.**

**Thanks for SakuraTenshi39062 for beta-ing... again, and thanks to all you guys who reviewed :)**

Blue Bird

Chapter 8

Nightwing stepped away from Superboy as the gym door opened and Artemis and Kid Flash entered, already bickering. Both were in uniform and Artemis was holding a bottle of water.

"... not like I want you anywhere near me." Kid Flash was saying.

Artemis huffed, "Then why d'you insist on invading by personal space?"

Kid Flash managed to avoid turning bright pink as he replied. "That is so not the point."

Artemis opened her mouth to make a sharp retort, but never got the chance, as Nightwing chose that moment to speak up; "Get a room and have your lover's spat there. It isn't something the rest of us need or want to see."

Both the archer and the speedster turned red, "'Lover's spat'?" Artemis asked, "I, we... We're not lovers!"

Nightwing grinned wickedly; "Sure you are, I've seen enough lover's spats to know one on sight; I've seen ones with green and grey skin, I've seen ones with horns and tiaras, capes and whips, fishnets and quivers, fish scales and lightning and a whole heap of others, so I think I'd know one when it walks in wearing green and yellow spandex, only slightly weirder than that one with a cat and a crossbow."

Kid Flash's jaw dropped as he struggled to come up with a witty comeback and Nightwing's grin widened; "Two words. Roy. Cheshire."

Artemis, who had just taken a swig from her water bottle, choked and started violently coughing. Nightwing gently thumped her on the back and she came up gasping, eyes watering and doing her best to give Nightwing a death glare. The vigilante, despite not being intimidated, raised his hands and backed off.

Before anyone could make a move against Nightwing, to attack or otherwise, the door slid open again to admit M'Gann, Kaldur and Black Canary, the latter of whom surveyed the scene before her with a raised eyebrow before taking her place, front and centre, on the holographic training ring.

"Okay team, today we were supposed to start with training on advanced weaponry, but as one of our experts isn't here we're going to go over hand to hand grappling." Canary turned her eyes on Nightwing, who gazed coolly back, "Batman's orders are for you to join the team's training sessions until we find a way to send you home."

Nightwing shrugged and, at Canary's gesture, joined her on the ring. The blonde brought up a holoscreen; "Computer; create a temporary profile for 'Nightwing'."

There was silence for a few minutes as the computer took the readings and then the screen flashed green and closed. Canary shrugged off her jacket and tossed it to one side; "Okay then, let's see what you can do."

"Whenever you're ready." Nightwing replied.

Canary lunged with a well placed jab, which Nightwing easily blocked and flipped away from Canary before she could follow it up with a kick. She pivoted to keep her eyes on Nightwing as he hit the ground and made to sweep her legs out from under her.

She dodged the attack and returned with a feint to the left followed through with a powerful right hook, but Nightwing anticipated the movement and blocked by catching Canary's fist and flipping her over his shoulder. Canary avoided hitting the floor and brought Nightwing over with her. He too managed to avoid the floor and made a jab for Canary's ribs, causing her to release his wrist so he could circle around and deliver a kick to the back of her knees. Canary hit the floor and the computer announced with a mundane finality; "Black Canary; fail."

Nightwing held out a hand and Canary took it, allowing the man to pull her to her feet; "Nice move." She said, "Where'd you learn it?"

Nightwing frowned slightly; "That particular one was a variation on a basic form used by most professional assassins to immobilise opponents. I learnt it in Bludhaven from a student of mine who then proceeded to throw two feet of lead piping at my head."

Black Canary arched an eyebrow, but made no comment. "Artemis, go against Nightwing."

The archer shrugged and stepped on to the training mat, assuming a fighting stance. Across from her Nightwing did the same. The two circled for several seconds;

"How's Cam?" Nightwing asked, smirking.

Artemis raised an eyebrow, "He doesn't go by 'Cam' anymore."

"Oh yeah." Nightwing's smirk widened slightly, "I heard he was on that bridge back in July."

"You and everyone else in the state." Artemis said, lunging for an opening punch, which Nightwing blocked.

He pulled her wrist down, tugging her elbow into an awkward angle, as he replied. "More like the country."

Nightwing jabbed at a pressure point in Artemis' shoulder and swept her legs out from under her.

"Artemis; fail."

The archer stood and stood to one side, massaging her shoulder as she traded places with Kid Flash, who didn't wait for banter and charged straight away. Nightwing sidestepped his attack and stuck out his foot. Wally hit the floor and skidded to a halt as the computer deadpanned.

"Kid Flash; fail."

"If you have time to, evaluate your opponent's fighting style." Nightwing said, offering the speedster a helping hand, Wally ignored it and pulled himself to his feet.

Face burning in shame he left the mat, allowing Kaldur to step up.

As the Atlantean programmed the computer Nightwing sidled up to Black Canary; "Are you planning on making them fight me until someone actually wins?"

"Something like that." The other hero replied.

Nightwing shrugged; "Good luck with that."

"Aren't you being a little complacent?" Canary asked, arching an eyebrow.

Nightwing shrugged; "You call it complacent, I call it knowing the team inside out."

Canary frowned; "And how do you do that?"

Nightwing shrugged; "Batman's paranoid, one of my brothers is more paranoid and I'm a world-class hacker."

With the barest trace of a smile Nightwing stepped back onto the mat for his fight with Kaldur, leaving a frowning Canary behind him.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Holy *! 99 reviews already? You guys are the greatest.**

**Here's chapter 9, so sorry, but it's unbeta-ed because I wanted to give you a chapter before I left the country.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p><span>Blue Bird<span>

Chapter 9

Kaldur stepped into the training ring and assumed a fighting stance, examining Nightwing coolly through his silver-grey eyes. Nightwing imitated him and the two began to circle, taking short, measured strides.

"You are very skilled." Kaldur said.

Nightwing shrugged, "I trained with a lot of people."

"Including the notorious assassin, Deathstroke." Kaldur said, "I am personally unsure of why you are still here."

"I'm persuasive." Was the only explanation Nightwing offered, "And it's not like I'm the only one here with dubious connections, right?"

Kaldur didn't reply, but his eyes narrowed slightly. Several more minutes passed of just them circling before either one struck, Nightwing leapt forwards and jabbed at Kaldur's unguarded left side. Kaldur blocked and made to return in kind, but only hit thin air as Nightwing danced away and fell back into his original position, waiting for Kaldur to make the next move.

The Atlantean dived in with a low, sweeping kick which Nightwing jumped, using Kaldur's shoulder as a springboard to launch himself across the room, where he landed in a crouch and flipped backwards, landing a neat kick to the small of Kaldur's back, sending him staggering forwards. Nightwing used this temporary unbalance to his advantage and landed a second kick to the back of Kaldur's knee, which sent him toppling to the floor.

"Aqualad: FAIL."

Kaldur accepted Nightwing's helping hand with the smallest of smiles; "I see I still have much to learn."

Nightwing shrugged, "Everyone's a student in their own life."

"Who said that?" Kaldur asked.

"Me." Nightwing gave a lopsided grin as he turned to Black Canary, "How about you give someone else a turn?"

Black Canary opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off as Batman's voice came over the loud speakers; "Team, report to mission room."

The five teens exchanged looks and headed in the designated direction, leaving Black Canary and Nightwing alone. The woman shrugged; "Since he's including you in everything else, I'm assuming he's letting you in on mission briefings. Good to meet you, Nightwing."

"Likewise."

The two shook hands and headed in opposite directions; Nightwing following the team to the mission room and Canary towards the zeta tubes.

Nightwing joined the mission briefing several seconds after it had started, but aside from a swift glare Batman didn't register his arrival and continued.

"... a large complex in London's sewer system, the local police force were unable to penetrate it and requested League assistance, you will provide this assistance. Your mission is to infiltrate the complex, find out what its purpose is and, if necessary, neutralise it. Nightwing will be accompanying you."

Batman didn't wait to hear any complaints; before they had formed he raised a hand to silence them. "Do any of you have any questions concerning the mission that do not involve Nightwing?"

Kaldur stepped forwards; "We wish to know what the situation is regarding Robin."

"The situation is a high League priority." Batman replied, his eyes narrowing in a way that quite clearly told everyone not to go any further.

Kaldur nodded, "Then that is all."

The team left and Nightwing followed suit, nodding at Batman as he did and took a shorter route to the hanger, arriving alongside the bioship and placing a hand next to where the door would be. The ship made a strange purring noise and assumed its awakened form, opening a hatch for Nightwing to enter.

Once onboard the acrobat took the seat designated to his past self and waited for thirty seconds before Wally zoomed in, took his seat and did a double take as he noticed Nightwing seated in the corner.

But before the speedster could do more than gape wordlessly the others had entered and given almost exactly the same reaction.

"What the-" Artemis managed to avoid cursing, "How did you get in?"

Nightwing shrugged and petted the console; "I think she likes me."

Artemis rolled her eyes and took her seat beside Wally, the rest of the team followed suit and within minutes M'Gann was guiding the ship out of the bay doors and out across the harbour.

"Activating camouflage mode." M'Gann announced, "ETA about five am local time."

Artemis turned to Nightwing, "What I think we all want to know is how come Batman trusts you to come on a mission with us?"

"It is a fair question," Kaldur agreed, "Given the type of hints you have been giving, such as being trained by assassins and training assassins. We would all like to know how Batman came to trust you."

"I'm from the future." Nightwing said, "A lot can happen in ten years, but right now, in this time, I'm someone he trusts."

"So... You're active in our time?" M'Gann asked.

Nightwing nodded, "Yeah, and sorry, no I can't tell you who. It would make the timeline go screwy."

"You expect us to trust you, even though we don't know who you are?" Artemis asked.

"Trust Batman's judgement." Nightwing said, "It did wonders for me."

The rest of the journey passed in silence, and when they reached London the sun was barely coming up. M'Gann put down the bioship on top of an apartment building and established a mental link.

_(Everyone online?)_

There was general murmur of ascent and Kaldur nodded, _(Good. We will enter in three groups, Artemis and Nightwing take the left entrance and create an opening for Kid and Superboy. Myself and M'Gann shall enter last and deal with any additional resistance while Artemis and Nightwing retrieve the data we need. Understood?)_

They all nodded and descended into the sewer, eventually coming up against a heavy bulkhead door. Nightwing retrieved something from his belt and set it against the titanium lock.

_(What is that? A bomb?) _Artemis asked, but Nightwing shook his head.

_(Not exactly.) _The vigilante replied.

A small bar of numbers lit up and began to scramble, within seconds the door was open. Nightwing disconnected the device and lead the way in; dodging the deluge of bullets that greeted them.

Immediately the team leapt into action, but it didn't seem to be them the guard were firing at. Half a dozen other people were ducking and dodging bullets through the fog of gunfire, occasionally taking out a goon.

Artemis notched an arrow, but one of the guards noticed her and grabbed the nearest member of their opposition, a girl in black and silver armour, and threw her towards the archer. The two collided and rolled away.

The stranger spat out a curse in something that sounded to Artemis like Cambodian. The archer took a precious few seconds to analyse the girl, who could be her next attacker; she was tall and lithe, about eighteen years old and wearing black and silver body armour, a cowl covered the top half of her face and hair; it was the same shade of grey as Wally's stealth uniform and only had one eye.

"What the-" The girl cursed again as she realised who she'd crashed into. "You wouldn't happen to know what happened to Nightwing, would you?"

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><p><strong>AN: First person to guess who the girl is, who her friends are, how she got there and why she's looking for Nightwing gets a virtual cookie. :)<strong>

**Until next time folks!**

**-Silver**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Hey guys! I'm back. Happy Easter and to those of you who guessed that out mystery visitor was Ravager (So pretty much everyone) have a virtual cookie. And those of you who reviewed but didn't guess it was Ravager, you can have cookies too.**

**Enjoy this (unbeta-ed) chapter of Blue Bird.**

* * *

><p><span>Blue Bird<span>

Chapter 10

From the rafters Nightwing watch the fight with some interest, as the three teams; the six members of Young Justice, the guards and the five mystery men and women. As one of the guards tossed one of the mystery women into Artemis Nightwing frowned and pressed a switch concealed in his mask.

His vision zoomed in on the scene and Night caught a proper glimpse at the new arrival, a girl in black and silver, as she cursed then asked Artemis something. Nightwing managed to lip read his name and he smirked.

"Looks like you're finally using the stealth tech." He deactivated the zoom in his mask and made psychic contact with Artemis.

_(Artie, she's a friend.)_

Artemis started at the sudden contact, _(Says who?)_

_(Me.)_

_(Like that'll convince me? I'm not entirely sure you're trust worthy either.) _Artemis started gesturing, earning a stare from the new arrival.

_(Look out for the-)_ Nightwing's warning died as the new girl drew one of her swords and deflected half a dozen bullets and slammed the hilt into a guard's head.

Nightwing leapt from beam to beam, getting close enough to hear what the two girls were saying.

"You owe me." The girl said, "Up and at 'em Artie or all the competent goons' ll be gone."

Artemis didn't have time to form a reply before her companion took out another guard and said with a smirk; "I'm guessing 'Wing is around then?"

"He says I can trust you." Artemis said, "Can I have the name of the girl I'm meant to trust?"

"Ravager." The girl said, "Bet I can take out more than you."

"You're on." Artemis drew her bow and fired a volley of arrows.

Nightwing leapt on, taking out eight guards as he passed over two grey blurs which seemed to not have noticed each other. A green rhino took down three guards creeping up behind M'Gann, it swiftly turned into a monkey and leapt at another. Aqualad and Superboy were working together, also unaware of their assistant, a black and yellow shadow flipping neatly over guards and taking them out before anyone noticed she was there.

Which left one more.

Nightwing looked around and found Cyborg at the door, attempting to hack his way out, with automatic defences fending off guards.

Nightwing cursed and put a hand to his temple; _(Guys, we need to regroup, we're too far spread.)_

_(You have an overview.) _Aqualad said, _(Where do you suggest?)_

_(With Artemis, I'll meet you there.)_ Nightwing leapt downwards again and pulled a neat flip, landing squarely on the shoulders of one guard who was seconds away from blowing either Artemis or Ravager's head off.

"Focus, Ravager." He called out, taking down another guard.

"Kinda hard when you insist on pulling a disappear/reappear act every time daddy shows up." Ravager complained, slicing through a guard's gun, causing it to misfire and explode in his face.

"Non-lethal." Nightwing said, kicking a guard in the face, sending him staggering back to Ravager, who slammed her knee into the small of his back. He crumpled and Nightwing nodded in approval, "'Arsenal teach you that?"

"I saw Arsenal pull it and copied him." Ravager said.

"While you two have your cosy catch-up session I'm on my own here." Artemis snapped, "Could hold it off for a bit?"

As she spoke half the guards Artemis was fighting vanished and Kid Flash skidded to a halt; and tripped over his own feet.

Ravager smirked; "So smooth, 'Wall-Man'."

Wally spluttered and jumped about a foot in the air when one of the girl's sword hilts collided with a guard's face just behind him. Wally caught it; "Uh, souvenir?"

Ravager held out her hand and Wally handed it over. Aqualad and Superboy joined them, taking out half a dozen more guards between them.

"Who would have this many guards?" M'Gann asked, materialising above them.

"Metahuman containment facility." Ravager muttered; "Brand new, completely illegal and totally empty."

"Right," Nightwing said; "KF, think you can double check?"

"Who appointed you team leader?" Wally folded his arms.

"Kid, do it." Aqualad said, "The rest of us will concentrate on taking out the guards with..." He looked at Ravager who reintroduced herself.

"Um... before we do that..." Nightwing held out his hand to Ravager; "Comm."

The girl handed it over and Nightwing put it in his ear; "Attention crew, this is your captain speaking-"

"Where. Have. You. Been?"

Batgirl's shout was loud enough to draw alarmed looks from all the team except Superboy, who frowned slightly.

"Look, do we have to do this now?" Nightwing asked, "Imp, I need you to clear the fog, Beast Boy and Batgirl, rendezvous with us as we move to take out the guards, Cy hack that door like your life depends on it, 'cause it probably does, and if you're in the mainframe get the specs on this place; who runs it, who funded it, what it's for, the works."

"You got it boss." Cyborg replied.

"Thank you, over and out."

Nightwing handed back the comm. to a frowning Ravager; "What part of 'meta containment facility' did you not get, 'Wing?"

Nightwing rolled his eyes as the others moved into an attack formation; "The bit where you've still got kryptonite under that eye patch."

"Actually, no I don't." Ravager replied, "I just let people think I do, you should have seen Booster's face when Kon told him I knew where he lived."

She looked over at Artemis, who was taking out still more goons. "Now if you'll excuse me I have a challenge to win."

Ravager leapt into the fight with gusto and Nightwing was about to join in too when there was a thud behind him and he turned to find himself looking at several crumpled guards. His secondary comm. buzzed.

"You owe me one Nightwing." Batgirl said.

"Are we keeping score?" Nightwing asked; "'Cause if we are its eight-seven my favour."

The dark-clothed vigilante took out three more guards and the fog of gunfire slowly began to lift, revealing something that made everyone do a double take. A large green alpaca was running around with a silver robot riding on its back, firing a high-tech cannon at the guards.

"What the-" The team froze, but Ravager and Nightwing continued like it was a normal occurrence.

"Cyborg, what's happening with the door?" Nightwing shouted.

"We're in trouble. It was harder to hack than the mainframe." The robot shouted back.

"I'm on it." Nightwing replied, "Impulse, Ravager, cover me."

Ravager nodded and a grey blur picked her up half a second later.

The team came back to itself as Nightwing leapt away and the robot waved, "Hey, I'm Cyborg, the green bean is Beast Boy," He patted the alpaca on the head, "If you see a black and yellow shadow-"

"She can introduce herself," said black and yellow shadow dropped from the ceiling and brought her foot up between a guard's legs. His squeal hit high soprano before he passed out. The young woman turned and gave the faintest of smiles, brushing a strand of red hair from her face; "Batgirl, the boy is blue and black would be my boyfriend."

She stuck her fist out into a goon's face and he crumpled; "So you're the one Nightwing reckons can hit harder than Supey." Wally said, skidding to a halt beside the group; "Complex is clear by the way."

Batgirl rolled her eyes, the grey blur skidded to a halt and deposited Ravager on the floor; "This hyper-active anti-ninja is Impulse."

"Hey." The speedster bounced, "All guards accounted for B.G."

"And the door is open." Nightwing said, joining the group, "All jobs done."

"Good." Batgirl said, and she smacked him, hard, across the face.

"Ow!" Nightwing cried, "What was that for?"

"Last we heard you were going after Deathstroke, alone." Batgirl said. "We thought he'd got you. Again."

"Actually, I'd just seen him going the other way, but you didn't think to ask me; 'Hey Rose, you wouldn't happen to know if Slade's got Nightwing again, would you?'" Ravager said, doing a fair imitation of Batgirl's voice.

"Wait, you let him go?" The alpaca asked.

Everyone stared as the robot dismounted and it turned back into a guy in grey and purple, with green skin. He grinned and turned back to Ravager; "Seriously? You let him, Deathstroke the Terminator, Slade Wilson, the guy you really, really hate, even more than Clock King-"

"Get to the point Gar."

"You let him go?"

"I was about to punch him through a wall and ask what happened to Nightwing, honest." Ravager said, "But Robin called, well... the other Robin, what do I call him? Past Robin? Present Robin?"

"Wait." Artemis held up a hand, "You saw Robin?"

"Batsy, here, put me on bird-sitting duty." Ravager said, "So, yeah, I saw him."

"Then where is he now?" Aqualad asked.

"Our time." Ravager said, "But I'm hoping he'll be along in a bit. We were trying to build a time machine."

"'We' being who?" Nightwing asked.

"Uh, me, past Robin, Kon, Megan, Tempest, Tigress, Flash, Red Robin, Damian, Static, Gear and we got the blue prints from Booster Gold." Ravager replied, shuffling her feet.

"Uh, doesn't Flash have a cosmic treadmill in your time?" Wally asked.

"It, kinda, might have got, a little bit, stolen." Impulse said, tapping his fingers together. "By Professor Zoom."

"Whoops." Wally commented.

"Big whoops." Impulse agreed, "Flash was really mad about it, it was the angriest I've ever seen him, ever."

"It was mildly terrifying." Nightwing said. "Can we go before the cops show up?"

"We have to go in the bioship, don't we?" Impulse asked, and at the various nods he groaned; "Aw man, I mean, no offence to her or anything, but that thin g makes me nauseous."

"Tough luck, Allen." Ravager smirked, "Just aim at Batgirl when you puke."

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><p><strong>AN: Next time we find out how they got to this time and how they plan to get back. Also on the way: another mystery visitor and Batman's reaction to the visitors and Ravager looses her temper with Superman.<strong>

**Until next time!**

**-Silver**


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Umm... Yeah, sorry I haven't updated in... a while, you could say I've been busy, but then I saw episode 1 of Invasion, got five days of school and read Teen Titans Annual #1 (poor Artemis) and I saw Avengers, nothing like a load of not-studying to get you motivated.**

**Oh and in responce to luvthesea17: Nightwings EX girlfriend is the alien warrior princess, Batgirl is ihis current girlfriend.**

**Anyway, ENJOY!**

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><p><span>Blue Bird: Chapter 11<span>

The ride back was relatively uneventful.

Impulse managed to contain his nausea for the whole journey, which was mostly spent in silence. About half an hour from Happy Harbour Artemis turned to Nightwing.

"So, which of these clowns tried to kill Superman?"

Nightwing arched an eyebrow at Batgirl, who was glaring with venom at him. Ravager, unaware of this, smirked, "That would be me, speaking of which," she, too, turned to Nightwing, "If I see him can I hit him?"

"If he's being a douche." Nightwing said, "If he isn't, play nice."

"Playing nice is boring." Ravager pouted.

"You not playing nice is the reason Cassie gave you the boot." Cyborg said.

"Coming to her defence, and it isn't often that I do that," Batgirl interrupted, "Cassie is a total bitch anyway, whenever I see her I want to annoy her."

Ravager looked mildly triumphant; "Team Ravager: one, Team Wonder Witch: zero."

Wally raised an eyebrow at his teammates; "Any idea what they're talking about?"

"None." Aqualad said, "And I think it best if we steer the conversation in to territory that will not further disrupt the timelines."

M'Gann nodded, "So, Nightwing, this is your team?"

Nightwing took the hint and nodded, "Yep, and they're awesome."

"And have seen Robin?" Aqualad asked.

They all nodded and Batgirl smirked; "Little troll if ever there was one."

At the confused looks on the team's faces Beast Boy smiled toothily; "Boy Wonder hacked her computer; left an animation of a flower on it. What type was it again?"

"An Aster." Cyborg supplied, "A yellow one."

"Sounds about right." Superboy said, folding his arms.

There was silence for a few minutes, then M'Gann turned to Ravager; "So, Ravager, if you were watching Robin, how did you end up with your team here?"

"Batgirl called me in." Ravager explained, "We went after Warp to try and get some of his tech, except it didn't really work, we just ended up here."

"So Robin is in your time, alone." Wally stated.

"No, even I'm not that irresponsible." Ravager said.

Batgirl coughed and the other girl glared; "What? If you don't believe me just ask Ro-"

A red-gloved hand shot out of nowhere and covered Ravager's mouth, "Spoilers." Impulse muttered, his voice slightly muffled by his other hand, still clamped firmly over his mouth.

Nightwing rolled his eyes and pulled a paper bag from his belt. As he handed it to Impulse the speedster nodded in thanks and held it under his mouth.

"Are we there yet?" the speedster asked.

"Nearly," Nightwing said, "Speaking of which, Aqualad, you should probably warn RT or Bats or Supes, or whoever's on 'den mother duty' this week that we've got more time-displaced super-teens."

"I'm not a teen," Batgirl pointed out, "Neither is Cyborg."

Cyborg gave her a funny look; "Are you trying to cause confusion now, or is that genuinely important to you?"

Batgirl shrugged and Aqualad made the call. The rest of the relatively short flight was silent and, no sooner than the bioship's doors had opened was Impulse gone, shouting something which Beast Boy translated as; "Gotta find a bathroom stat!"

The others disembarked more slowly, only to be met with an ever-stoic Red Tornado and an uncomfortable-looking Superman. Ravager smiled wickedly and pretended not to notice the three senior members of her team glaring in her direction.

"Dibs." She muttered.

"Denied." Nightwing and Batgirl deadpanned.

Kid Flash raised an eyebrow at Artemis; "You can deny dibs?"

She shrugged but didn't reply, focusing instead on staying on her feet as Impulse came back and promptly crashed into her.

Aqualad gave a world-weary sigh and stepped forwards, "The mission was a success, I believe it would be prudent to debrief in the mission room."

Superman nodded and gestured for the two teams to lead the way, which they did and arrived in the mission room, where Aqualad and Nightwing took point.

Aqualad began, "We had arrived at the facility and infiltrated it successfully, however, upon our arrival we discovered a second team already inside."

"That was us." Beast Boy put in helpfully.

"Together our two teams took down the remaining guards and searched the facility." Nightwing said, "Aside from ourselves and the guards it was empty, but we discovered on hacking the mainframe that it had been designed to house a metahuman containment facility for an organisation called the Darkside Club."

"In our time it's like a high-end low-life sport." Ravager said, "Its like gladiators except with metas, and a pretty high percentage of these people aren't there willingly."

"Thanks to Ravager, it was rendered obsolete about ten months before we were sent here." Batgirl said, "But here it doesn't even exist yet,"

"And shouldn't exist for, at minimum, another four to six years." Cyborg said.

"I will inform Batman of your report." Red Tornado said, "Superman will remain here on standby should there be any emergencies."

The android left, and the zeta tube lit up; "Recognised; Red Tornado; 1-6."

There was silence for a moment. Then Ravager spoke; "Is forced bonding a viable form of torture?"

"Why do you wish to know?" Aqualad asked.

Ravager shrugged, "I want to know if I could be locked up for forcing Superman to sit down and talk to his fellow Kryptonian."

"No, you couldn't." Nightwing said, "But it would still be inadvisable."

"Okay." Ravager shrugged, then turned on Superman, still standing there, looking and feeling incredibly awkward. "You, sir, need to get your goddamn act together pronto!"

The assembled company winced and Nightwing led the way out of the room as Ravager continued shouting; "There are a lot of things I can live through, but poor parenting isn't one of them! Hell my father may have been an abusive bit of scum, but at least he knew when my birthday was, bothered to find out when I got a boyfriend, even if it was just to try and kill him, and knew my name. So in the parenting aspect of your life you are on a par with the man who, in ten years time, is responsible for quite a few deaths."

Superman gaped like a fish, unable to find his tongue as the young woman ranted on, "Did you know Superboy has a name? Or a girlfriend? Did you know he's on the honour role at High School? Hell, did you even know he went to school?"

When Superman, once again, didn't reply, Ravager clearly rolled her eye, an action invisible under the cowl, but still discernable to the team, cowering just beyond the door eight feet away; "Food for thought, Kent."

The team re-entered the room and, almost at the same instant, the zeta tube lit up again; "Recognised; Batman; 0-2. Red Tornado; 1-6."

The two aforementioned heroes entered and the tension in the cave increased one hundred fold.

Nightwing was subconsciously glad he had confiscated Ravager's kryptonite.

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><p><strong>AN: He he... that was fun, I always imagined that Ravager wouldn't abide by heroes being bad parents... so I guess she'd be angry at Superman and deeply admire Batman, just on the basis of their parenting skills.<strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: And here comes the begging for forgiveness...**

**Not really, but I'm seriously sorry for being so late with this, still unbeta-ed, chapter.**

**I've probably got the smae excuse as every other teenager right now... Exams, but never mind that, enjoy the chapter!**

**Oh, and if anyone spots any references to comics, because there are a few, have a virtual cookie.**

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><p><span>Blue Bird<span>

Chapter 12

The tension was mercifully broken by the computer.

All present; totalling to two Kryptonians, five masked vigilantes (three of whom were Bats), an Atlantean, a Martian, a changeling, a cyborg and an android, unanimously turned to the screen and Superman, noticing everyone's apparent distraction, took the opportunity to try and take his leave.

This effort was somewhat hindered by the male Bats in the room, both of whom, without looking away from the screen, had seized fistfuls of his scarlet cape and said, in perfect sync; "Don't. Even. Think. About it."

The two teams exchanged raised eyebrows at this, and Beast Boy muttered something about 'non-verbal Bat-communication' before ducking Batgirl's outstretched hand, sidestepping M'Gann and taking refuge behind Ravager, who in turn shot him a glare and stepped aside, giving Batgirl a bow that was bordering on being sarcastic, but leaving the grass stain wide open to attack. With a muffled, slightly girlish, squeak Beast Boy transformed into a green bat and took refuge on Cyborg's shoulder before Batgirl could get a shot in.

Batgirl rolled her eyes and turned them on Superman, who appeared to be having a stare-down with Batman and Nightwing. Impulse prodded Ravager, who standing next to him, with the end of a candy bar which seemed to have appeared from nowhere, but before he could open his mouth the other teen interrupted.

"If that touches me again it's going to end up somewhere where extracting it would be a very difficult, long-winded and painful process. Are we clear?"

Impulse swallowed and like that, the remainder of the treat was gone. He nodded. "Clear."

Ravager nodded in satisfaction, keeping her eye fixed on the three-way confrontation; "What, then?"

"You know that kryptonite Nightwing calls a 'reminder of the values of heroism'?"

Ravager's face soured; "I know of it. Nightwing took it off me after I had that stare-down with Kara."

Impulse's face fell, "So... you don't have it?"

"No." Was the reply, and before Impulse could voice another question, Ravager once again superseded him. "And no, I didn't bring that piece of kryptonite Kon used to have under his bed either."

This comment raised eyebrows from both teams, and Beast Boy transformed back into a human to mouth 'Long story' at the others before dramatically clearing his throat and gesturing to the computer.

Artemis took point and reached the console first. "Security warning. Nothing massive, but there are reports of a ghost fire fight in the warehouse district of Fawcett City. And with Marvel off planet with the Lanterns dealing with a meteorite it came to us instead."

"What is the nature of the alert?" Aqualad asked, shifting his gaze from the still silent confrontation between Batman, Nightwing and Superman.

Artemis brought up a keyboard and rapidly typed a series of codes. "Mirages, shouts, explosions, except when people go investigate there's nothing there."

Aqualad nodded and cleared his throat, Batman turned to face him, but Superman and Nightwing didn't, undeterred Aqualad spoke anyway; "If I may, I would like to take members of both teams on this mission."

Batman nodded; "Take Nightwing, Cyborg, Impulse, Artemis and Superboy."

Impulse raised his hand; "Usually Nightwing gives us orders..." But interrupted himself at Batman's glare, "But sure we'll take orders from you! Whatever you say Mr Batman, Sir!"

Impulse was gone in a flash of red and yellow and Ravager sniggered. "Nightwing, while you're on your little mission, what's the policy on attacking the Boy Scout?" She sent a evil-looking glare in Superman's direction.

Nightwing sighed heavily; "Non-lethal, only if he deserves it and keep the damage under five hundred dollars." Then added as an afterthought; "Same goes for everyone else, Rose, no killing."

Ravager put her hands up in defence; "Do I look like Damian to you?"

"Actually you kinda do. Especially when you go all frowny and stuff." Beast Boy smirked.

Nightwing rolled his eyes and lead the remainder of the mission team towards the hangar.

Artemis fell in step beside him; "What's her problem?"

Cyborg, walking with Aqualad and Superboy; who were talking to each other, raised an eyebrow; "Ravager? Same problem as you, except you put faulty mind-control, psychosis and ESP into the equation."

"She has superpowers?" Artemis frowned, "And what do you mean by 'faulty mind-control'?"

"Her whole family has superpowers; the ones who are still alive anyway." Nightwing said, "He surviving brother is a body-jumper, by suffers from psychotic episodes. He father is impossible to kill."

"And you would know?"

Nightwing didn't answer and Cyborg coughed uncomfortably; "Anyway, you asked about mind control?"

Artemis nodded; "Yeah, she doesn't seem the type to be told what to do, by anyone."

"Her father is what you might call an expert psychoanalyst." Nightwing said, "He very good at mind games."

"And chemistry." Cyborg put in, "You notice how she's only got one eye on her cowl?"

Artemis nodded; "You're not telling me she genuinely only has one eye?"

Cyborg nodded, "Result of a mind-controlling agent. Courtesy of her dad."

"She said he was an abusive bit of scum." Artemis said, reaching the bioship and opening the hatch.

Cyborg's human eye flicked to Nightwing and back, "She wasn't wrong."

The six of them boarded and Artemis took the controls.

They flew in silence and before long, or before Impulse could threaten to throw up again, they had arrived and were disembarking onto the roof of a warehouse from which they could see the source of the disturbance.

Six ghost-like figures were perched at varying levels up and down the street while a man in golden armour, also of a ghost-like quality, ragged on at several ethereal henchmen in heavily accented English.

"_... bad enough zat Deathstroke's brat damaged my equipment. I do not need you imbeciles damaging it so zat it doesn't work at all! Zee last thing I need iz to be trapped in zis pathetic time while zose remaining heroes hunt me down."_

"_So where did you send 'em boss?"_ One of the thugs asked.

"_Zee past. By ten year."_ The armoured man replied, _"Where zer are heroes and zat is not even thinking about zose remaining in zis time."_

"_And what did that chick do to your tech, uh, sir?"_ The other man asked.

"_She locked zee coordinates." _The apparent boss growled,_ "Which meanz she and 'er little team are reunited wiz zeir leader."_

One of the figures on a rooftop, a blonde woman in brown and yellow tiger-stripes, took the opportunity to leap in; _"Thanks for the info."_

The gold-suited Frenchman ground his teeth and took a defensive position_; "Tigress, how... unexpected. I assume zee rest of your... shall we say former team? Are zey here?"_

"_Right in one."_ A red and yellow blur skidded to a halt and revieled himself to be the Flash.

The smallest figure on the roof nearest the team put a hand to his ear;_ "Robin to Red Robin and other Robin."_

Nightwing booted up his hologlove and played the conversation that was currently taking place in the ethereal half of the street, the others all gathered around, listening.

The comm. was playing the sounds of fighting; _"Take it back Drake!"_

Nightwing and Cyborg simultaneously facepalmed while Impulse grinned; "They're off again."

Another voice shouted something about taking back the truth as Nightwing huffed; "I can't time jump ten years for a couple of hours without them killing each other?"

"Actually they were fine before we left." Impulse said over another round of 'take it back's, "Must be something to do with Damian's crush on Rose, or Tim's crush on Barbara."

Nightwing raised an eyebrow but said nothing as a third voice cut in;

"_Robin, this is Static, as you may have guessed using your mad detective skills the other two bird boys are having a cat fight, almost literally. What can I do for ya?"_

Two more figures jumped into the fight as the small figure shrugged; _"Oh not much, just checking in to let you know we found Warp and found out that Ravager got a shot in which locked him temporal coordinates to ten years ago."_

"Wait," Artemis held up a finger; "Is that Robin?"

"_Thanks for that."_ The new voice on the comm. was saying, there was a crash and he shouted something that sounded distinctly like 'Swan Queen'.

The sounds of fighting stopped and the second voice came on again; _"I get enough of the 'Swan Queen' from Red Hood, thanks Virg."_

"_I believe he is making implications about your sexuality, Drake." _The youngest voice piped up.

Robin, still stuck into the future, leapt downwards into the fight with a smirk, ducking a laser beam as Flash whisked past; the two started exchanging banter as they took out goons.

"_Look out!"_ A shout from Tigress caught the two off guard and she hit Flash and the two skidded to the floor while Robin managed to duck away on his own. The laser beam sailed over their heads, but a second laser hit Tigress as she was pulling Flash to his feet, and the two suddenly became solid.

Nightwing was suddenly typing again and hit the call button on his holoscreen, there was a click as someone picked up; "This is Static, who is calling please?"

Nightwing looked unamused; "Put Robin and Red Robin on, now."

There was a click as the comm. changed hands; "Hello?"

"Tim, Damian, stop trying to kill each other and concentrate on getting all of us home."

"Dick!"

"Shut up Tim." Nightwing snapped, "You're meant to be mature, so don't make me call the Outlaws on you."

Before either of the two boys ten years in the future could answer there was a burst of static and the call ended itself.

"What happened?" Aqualad asked.

Nightwing shrugged; "Time window must have closed." He glanced down at the two new arrivals, who had somehow been surrounded by thugs in the space of the two and a half minutes since they'd arrived.

Nightwing rolled his eyes and looked to Aqualad, who nodded, "Go."

The six of them leapt into action, with Artemis and Nightwing taking out thugs the sneaky way, Impulse and the newly arrived Flash doing it the speedy way and Superboy, Aqualad, Cyborg and the newly arrived Tigress doing it the obvious-with-a-glowing-neon-sign way.

Before long every thug was out cold. Impulse high-fived Flash, who then looked around and, before anyone could blink, tackled Nightwing with a bear-hug. Nightwing's eye twitched, as he tried and failed to push the speedster away.

"Get. Off. Me."

Tigress rolled her eyes and took Flash by the ear, "Down boy."

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, Tigress!" Flash complained.

Cyborg cleared his throat; "Introductions, Tigress, ex –archer, Flash, ex-teen speedster. Meet Artemis and Aqualad."

They nodded to each other and Tigress sighed; "Great, mini-me, mini-him." She jerked her thumb at Flash, who looked mildly insulted; "As if the return of the 'prefix-poacher' wasn't bad enough."

"We should go." Aqualad said.

Impulse nodded, "Yeah, we need to make sure Ravager doesn't destroy your house."

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><p><strong>AN: Well, that was a fun chapter to write.<strong>

**No telling when the next chapter's coming, but feel free to read Red Wings, which is telling Robin's side of the story, and leave a review too!**

**Until next time!**


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Sorry for taking so long, but, thankfully I'm all done with exams now and I've got a chapter for you guys.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>One relatively short trip in the bioship later found Aqualad, Nightwing, Cyborg, Impulse, Superboy, Artemis, her older counterpart and the future Flash standing in hangar again, hastily filling Red Tornado in on the details of their relatively short mission as the sounds of something, or in this case someone, being punched around grew steadily louder from the next room.<p>

"What the hell's going on in there?" Tigress turned slightly and craned her neck, trying to see through the entrance, eight feet away.

"I believe Kid Flash was making forward remarks to Ravager and she did not appreciate it." The android replied, "The issue has yet to be resolved by Superman, who is the current 'den mother' for the team."

Superboy folded his arms; "I wonder why."

Red Tornado, who didn't recognise the clone's sarcasm, replied. "I believe Superman is intimidated by her."

The android walked away and Tigress and Artemis choked out laughs while Flash and Impulse looked horrified and were gone before anyone could stop them.

Aqualad gave a world-weary sigh and lead the way after them with the archer and ex-archer bringing up the rear, still giving the occasional giggle at Superman's supposed predicament.

Cyborg, acting somewhat like a defensive barrier, was first into the room, which, in their absence, seemed to have become a two-person warzone with M'Gann, Beast Boy, Batgirl and, surprisingly, Superman all hiding at varying levels throughout the room and trying to not look like targets on the stream of destruction caused by Ravager and Kid Flash.

Impulse and Flash, meanwhile, had disappeared, presumably to raid the fridge, and were sensibly staying well out of the way until the conflict had stopped.

Artemis fell into step beside Nightwing and the two simultaneously heaved sighs of annoyance as they stepped forward to wrench the two apart.

"Who threw the first punch?" Nightwing asked.

Every person who had been in the room at the time pointed at Ravager who had the good grace to turn pink at Nightwing's pointed stare.

"He was... doing his usual. Like I didn't get enough of that from Clock King."

The future heroes collectively sent glares at Kid Flash, who shifted uncomfortably under the pressure of six simultaneous near-bat-glares. Artemis smacked him around the back of his head and he winced.

"Sorry."

Ravager smirked and jerked her thumb towards the ceiling and Nightwing glanced up at the blue and red shadow. Taking the hint he turned to Batgirl and Beast Boy; "Guys we need to get this place cleaned up before Batman arrives and kills us all-"

"Or just Rose and Wally." Beast Boy interjected.

Nightwing ignored him; "Anyway, Impulse and his cousin should be around here somewhere, probably the kitchen, could you-"

"We're on it." Batgirl saluted and tossed Nightwing a small box from her utility belt; "Try not to change history."

Nightwing caught it with a grin; "Yes ma'am."

With these words he leapt into the air and fired a grapple line, landing very neatly on a support beam beside Superman.

"Tell me, are you a responsible adult?"

Superman raised an eyebrow; "Excuse me?"

Nightwing scowled, "You're meant to be the mature one in the room, and yet here you are hiding with the rest of them. Is there something wrong with you?"

"Um..."

Below, while the speedsters whisked around straightening the room, everyone else was sniggering, with the exception of Superboy, who merely looked faintly surprised at the fact that Nightwing was, once again, tearing through Superman's dignity like it was made of paper, rather than the steel it was reputed to be.

The vigilante pointed to the floor; "Down, before I set my assassins on you."

"You've got a grand total of eight assassins and hit men under your thumb, Nightwing." Cyborg called up, "But you're forgetting that only two of them are here right now."

"Not unless you count a two year old Demon-Child." Flash said, skidding to a halt.

"And isn't Rose an ex-assassin?" Impulse skidded to a halt too.

Tigress coughed slightly and Impulse zoomed to the other side of the room as Nightwing descended.

"And who are the other five?" Ravager's eye followed Nightwing to the floor.

"Red Hood, Arsenal, Tarantula, Huntress, Black Bat." Batgirl reeled off with a bored tone, "Notice how five of them are women, three are family members, one's his best friend and the other four have been romantically linked to him in some way or another."

Nightwing choked slightly and Flash thumped him on the back while Ravager took several hasty steps away from him. Batgirl smirked and stepped aside as Superman, slowly, drifted to the floor.

"You took your time." She commented, "Scared of us surface-dwellers are you?"

Superman struggled to find an answer, and was saved the trouble of actually doing so by Red Tornado, who had entered at that point and began to type at a holo-keyboard, eventually bringing up a comm. link to Batman.

"The team was able to locate the source of the temporal anomaly in Fawcett City." The robot said, "Nightwing was able to have brief contact with the future, but Robin has not yet returned-"

Even as the android spoke, however, there was a soft 'boom' and a vortex of yellow light appeared at the middle of the room. There was a loud yelp and the light vanished, leaving a teenaged figure in its wake.

"Robin?"

The chorus of voices made the boy wonder blink very rapidly and look around. "Uh, yeah. 'Know any other boy wonders? No, wait," he interrupted himself, "Don't answer that."

Batgirl laughed, "Met Swan Queen, Demon and Hood then?"

Robin shrugged; "Yep, still haven't met the other one, although technically she's a girl wonder."

"Spoilers." Impulse muttered and Nightwing and Batgirl laughed a little.

"What's funny?" Artemis asked, arching an eyebrow.

"In joke." Ravager muttered, "You'll get it in about seven years."

Superman coughed uncomfortably and drew every eye to him; Robin cackled and nudged Ravager in the ribs; "Haven't killed him yet then?"

"If I got a dollar for every time I heard that..."

Superman raised an eyebrow and Ravager fell silent; "We need to debrief the team, our team, so if all you guys from the future could just-"

"Holding cells. Got it." Beast Boy gave a mock salute and led the way out of the control room, down two floors and into a large open space which locked with a clunk once they were all inside.

Nightwing rolled his eyes, settled himself on the floor and began to hack the computer terminal, and soon had a screen showing footage of the control room. All eight occupants of the room were soon gathered around the tiny screen, watching the scene.

The debrief was clearly over, and Batman was still on screen, clearly giving a brief for another mission.

"Three missions in one week?" Cyborg asked, "I think that's a record."

"Shh!" Tigress muttered as she strained her ears, trying to hear.

"... the complex was discovered several miles beneath Bludhaven Harbour, your mission is to infiltrate the facility, deal with any threats and shut it down."

"Wait." Flash held up a finger, "Bludhaven Harbour? Isn't that a-"

"Secret Society hideout." Ravager interrupted, "They're going to get themselves killed."

With these words the ex-assassin tugged the cover off the air vent and pulled herself into it. Nightwing cursed; "Rahat! They're not the only ones."

He turned to the others; "The rest of you, stay here. That's an order."

The others all nodded, and Nightwing swiftly followed his former protégée.

Tigress snorted; "Does he really expect us to follow through?"

"Yep." Cyborg nodded.

"Entirely." Beast Boy added.

"Shame." Tigress made for the grille too, but was stopped by the speedsters in the room.

"Don't." They spoke in unison.

"This is their fight." Batgirl added, "And I don't think anyone wants to know how Batman will react to this."

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><p><strong>AN: Kudos and virtual cookies to anyone who got the in-joke about the girl wonder.<strong>

**Next time in Blue Bird: the Team, Nightwing and Ravager fight an organisation known as the Secret Society, meet Deathstroke the Terminator, Ravager gets arrested and the whole thing _probably _has nothing to do with the Light.**


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: Okay guys, it took me a while, but I'm back, and here's a new chapter...**

**Thanks for all the reviews/follows/favourites.**

**Enjoy...**

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><p><span>Blue Bird - Chapter 14<span>

One, fairly inconspicuous zeta-ride later found Nightwing and Ravager in Bludhaven, crouched in the shadows of the roof of what previously had been the upper floors of an underground facility belonging to the government, closed off from regular use due to a collapse that had happened nearly six months before.  
>Below the pair stood the team, clearly conversing telepathically, unaware of the three eyes fixed upon them;<br>"Can you get into their mind link?" Nightwing asked, not moving his eyes from the six teens, Ravager shook her head.  
>"Not without tipping them." was the reply.<br>Nightwing nodded and pulled up a holoscreen from his glove; swiftly hacking into security and pulling up a dossier of everyone on that, supposedly decommissioned, level of the facility.  
>Ravager gave a low whistle as she examined the list over Nightwing's shoulder,<br>"Wow, they are... Completely screwed, aren't they?" at the look she received from her former mentor Ravager raised an eyebrow, "What? Like you weren't thinking exactly the same? C'mon, look at these hitters; Clock King, Riddler, Mammoth... Oh and look at who they've got in reserve."  
>Ravager reached over and selected the file; "Our very own Slade Wilson, would you believe? What's the policy on dibs if events haven't played out yet?"<br>Nightwing pulled a heavy sigh, "Rose, let's make one thing clear, you are not going Mano-e-Mano with Deathstroke the Terminator, and that's an order."  
>Ravager pouted, "Tim always let me."<br>"I'm not Tim," Nightwing said, "And I feel the need to remind you that you left the Titans."  
>Nightwing closed his holoscreen and glanced down at the floor, where the team was preparing to split up.<br>"You take Aqualad's group, I'll take KF's."  
>Ravager smirked, "You made sure I got the group with my old friends in didn't you."<br>Nightwing smirked back but didn't reply as he leapt off the gantry to follow Robin, Artemis and Kid Flash down one corridor while Ravager was left to follow the other three in the opposite direction.  
>The tail was only marginally successful.<br>Nightwing managed to follow the trio for a grand total of eleven minutes before the silence and boredom became deafening, as such he began to throw flips from the gantries, just to see if his younger self and his two friends would notice.  
>They didn't, so the stunts got bigger, the tricks more complicated, until; finally, someone noticed.<br>That someone happened to be Robin, who, without warning turned and hurled something sharp at Nightwing's face. The vigilante caught it with a sigh.  
>"Are you people done throwing stuff at me?"<br>He handed the birdarang back to the caped crime-fighter and held out his hand; "You must be Robin."  
>Robin nodded, but didn't shake the offered hand.<br>Nightwing lowered it pretty quickly and, hands on hips, turned on the other two; "You went to Bludhaven without me? Hello! It's only my hometown!"  
>"Ten years in the future." Artemis retorted, "What makes you think this place even exists when you're from?"<br>"Uh, because I was the one who laid and detonated the C4." Nightwing said, "It's only gone because I blew it."  
>At this Artemis fell silent exchanging a look, first with Wally, then with Robin. Nightwing huffed; "Oh, go ahead and alert the others, I don't care."<br>Artemis frowned shook her head and stalked on, leaving the others to try and keep up, with Robin falling into step beside Nightwing. There was uncomfortable silence as the two walked in the wake of the speedster and the archer, who were also, for once, quiet.  
>"So, you're Nightwing, huh?"<br>Nightwing raised an eyebrow at his younger self, "Yeah."  
>Robin nodded; "Damian says 'hi'."<br>Nightwing nodded but didn't reply as the they continued onwards, still in silence, until Nightwing reeled like he'd been punched, clutching his ear.  
>"Ravager?"<br>"'Wing, we need help, like now!"  
>The sound of punching and several cries of pain before Rose resumed speaking; "They're after metas, Nightwing, and they've clocked the only one in their immediate vicinity."<br>"Crap."  
>Rose's voice turned icy. "You bet it's crap. And you bet we need help, so get your cute butt to corridor eight-C pronto before they start poking needles in me."<br>The line disconnected and Nightwing turned to the others, who were staring at him.  
>"Teammate in trouble?" Wally asked.<br>Nightwing nodded, "She needs help, and seeing as she was following the other members of your team I'm willing to be my inheritance that they're in trouble too."  
>Artemis raised her eyebrow, "How big's your inheritance?"<br>"About as big as his." Nightwing jerked his thumb as Robin, and Kid Flash managed not to gape as Nightwing turned for the nearest elevator and began to pry the doors open.  
>It wasn't long before he succeeded and the four of them were on their way down.<p>

By the time Nightwing, Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis had reached the others, they were surrounded.  
>"... I got Riddler, Wotan, Clock King-"<br>Robin listed off, "It's gonna take a helluva lot more than us to get them outta that mess."  
>Nightwing gestured for quiet and Robin fell silent, deactivating his hologlove and focusing on the floor below.<br>"... Looks like you walked right into a trap, kiddies." Riddler crowed, "Now riddle me this... I'm the beginning of a madman, and the end of a problem... What am I?"  
>None of the teens answered and Riddler tutted, "Lost without your little birdie, are you? C'mon, this one's easy!"<br>"Mind if you repeat the question?" Ravager snarled.  
>Riddler laughed and drew closer, "Why would I do that?"<br>"Humour her." Clock King said, Ravager visably cringed, "We still need to find the others."  
>"They're already gone." Ravager said, "If they're clever."<br>This drew alarmed looks from Aqualad, Miss Martian and Superboy, but Ravager merely adjusted her customary smirk;  
>"But, upside, I've got the answer to your little puzzle."<br>Riddler smiled, "Do enlighten them then, Miss..?"  
>"Ravager." Ravager replied, earning glares from half a dozen low-rate assassins who recognised the name; "And I think the answer would be... Psyche!"<br>With a shout she leapt into action, sending Riddler flying with a powerful kick and vaulting neatly over Clock King before anyone knew what was happening. With a roar the rest of the villains moved to attack, but half of them were consumed by a tidal wave of water from several directions that Aqualad must have summoned.  
>Nightwing sighed as the other three leapt into battle, and followed.<p>

Among the villains it was chaos, with the heroes cutting a huge swathe through their ranks. Nightwing spotted small-time thugs disappearing by the dozen, which meant Kid Flash had taken to scooping them up and depositing them who-knows-where, Aqualad was up against Wotan and a dozen or more magical henchmen, Artemis was going against Clock King with Ravager. Nightwing saw the others dance around the fog and smiled as he recognised Miss Martian and Superboy taking out Mammoth and Robin going after the Riddler.  
>He dropped from the ceiling and took out two goons who swiftly vanished and vaulted over his past self; who was grappling with the small, green suited Riddler, and pulled the two apart before punching Riddler's lights out.<br>Robin, who smirked as his opponent vanished in a blur, nodded in approval; "I take it you've fought him before then?"  
>"Yup." Nightwing agreed, "Never let him get talking. Rule número uno."<br>Robin grinned and turned to face the cleared room and the gathering team.  
>"Ravager, it would appear you have lost your mask." Aqualad said.<br>Ravager, who was extracting her sword from a wall, nodded as a grey blur skidded to a halt.  
>"I got it." Wally announced, holding the material aloft, "And get this, Ravager, here," he pointed dramatically, "was in stealth mode this whole time."<br>Miss Martian frowned, "Why does that merit comment?"  
>"Because," Nightwig noted Ravager's wince as the speedster drew the word out, "check it out when it isn't camo-ed."<br>Wally spread the two-toned material for everyone to see, and Miss Martian frowned, "I do not see the significance."  
>"I do." Robin drew stares as he turned on Ravager, "It's patterned off a design worn by Deathstroke the Terminator."<br>Artemis cut in with a snort of disbelief, "Seriously? Out of all the people to model yourself after, you choose him?"  
>"He's my father," Rose muttered, "At least ive the decency to come out and admit it." She turned a glare on the archer, "Like you're any better, Sporty?"<br>Artemis flushed, "That's different."  
>"How?" Ravager enquired, "My relationship with Deathstroke is near identical to the one you have with Sportsmaster, except the fact that your mother got off with permanent disability over death."<br>"So Deathstroke killed your mom, boo hoo," Artemis said, "He's killed alot of people."  
>"Yeah," Ravager agreed, and began ticking them off on her fingers, "Mother, two sets of foster parents, uncle, foster-uncle, two brothers, their mother, do you want me to continue?"<br>There was silence for a minute, before Ravager sighed, "You of all people should know that parentage should not define who you are."  
>"I agree wholeheartedly." Aqualad said, "But you understand that we cannot be sure?"<br>Ravager nodded and raised her hands above her head.  
>"I suppose this is the part where you arrest me?"<br>Nightwing sighed as the team did so, and moved to face the one remain security camera, behind which sat a man with white hair, a neatly trimmed beard and an eyepatch.  
>Deathstroke the Terminator leaned forwards in his seat, hand hovering over his communicator, ready to alert his employers to the situation, before thinking better of it.<br>"Another day, then." he said quietly, eye still fixed on the screen, which had exploded into static. "Another day."


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: Okay, here I am, back again!**

**I hope you enjoy this, the next chapter will come soon, promise.**

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><p><strong><strong>Blue Bird - Chapter 15

By the time they reached the cave again the other time travellers had been released, and were crowding the hangar, awaiting their return with a slightly angry Batman, whose glare told the team to get to the debriefing room without delay, leaving Nightwing to explain the hand-cuffed Ravager, who had been escorted to a holding cell without vents by a sombre-looking Aqualad.

By the end of the anecdote Tigress was crying with laughter and Flash was giving her a look.

"I didn't think you'd have it in you to be so callous, Arty."

The woman's demeanour changed immediately; "I'm an assassin, Wally, I profit from other people's deaths."

Impulse raised an eyebrow, "And you're fine with that?"

Tigress' lips thinned. "No."

"Then why do you do it?" Beast Boy asked, materialising from where he was concealed, as a fly, on the wall.

"Because it's what I'm good at."

"So am I, but you don't see me boasting about it."

Everyone turned at the new voice, and the effect was instantaneous. Beast Boy squeaked and changed back into a fly faster than thought, Impulse fell out of his chair and climbed back onto it just as fast as Nightwing arched an eyebrow, looking mildly amused, "Hey Jason, are you guys the competent rescue team then?"

Arsenal, stationed behind Red Hood and holding something Nightwing assumed was a time machine, grinned; "Who else? Long time no see Nightwing."

Nightwing grinned back, "The League is gonna flip."

"As well they should." Starfire said, nodding in approval, "They were most likely not to be expecting their betters to arrive."

"Too bad they got Ravager along with it." Tigress commented.

Red Hood hadn't missed the remark and, even through the helmet, he looked confused; "So where is Patchy anyway?"

"Holding cells." Tigress supplied.

Arsenal laughed; "What did she do this time?"

Nightwing coughed; "She put Superman's parenting skills on a par with her father's, then didn't tell anyone who her father was, then broke her power pack so everyone could guess."

Starfire frowned; "These people have locked Ravager away for her father's crimes?"

"Uh, not that simple Star." Flash tried, but the Tameranian was having none of it.

"This will not stand!"

With these words she was gone and Red Hood sighed; "Someone stop her before she blows something up."

Arsenal took off after the enraged alien and Red Hood headed in the other direction; "But she does have a point."

Nightwing followed his younger brother with an exasperated air, and Tigress exchanged a look with Batgirl before the two also followed. When they reached the holding cells Red Hood was already there, greeting Ravager and getting to work on the lock, after a full five mines of failure, during which Hood had considered simply blasting the lock off twice, but reconsidered due to advice from all other occupants of the room, who said this would leave Ravager trapped there forever, was when Superman and Batman entered.

By the time the team had arrived an argument was already underway, with Red Hood standing two feet away from Batman and Superman and hurling profanities at them in every language they could think of and then some, they were sure that, at the steady thinning of Batman's mouth, the look of horror on Nightwing's face and the amused glint in Ravager's eye, all three of them could understand every word that was being spoken.

"...and you're locking her up on what grounds?" Hood was saying, "Listen, if everyone in this godforsaken mountain was like their parents we'd have seven more psychopaths running around."

"Are you saying that Ravager is a psychopath then?" Superman asked and Red Hood and Ravager, still in her holding cell behind a pane of glass, burst into laughter.

"No," Nightwing replied, "He's saying he is the psychopath."

"I do have a cell in Arkham." Hood pointed out, "Courtesy of you and Demon Child number one."

Nightwing shrugged; "I said I was sorry, Jay, but you were trying to kill us."

"No I wasn't." Hood replied, "I was trying to humiliate you."

"Consider me humiliated." Nightwing said.

"And consider me bored." Ravager put in, "Can I come out now so we can all go home?"

"No, I'm not done using you as an excuse to shout at Batman." Red Hood muttered.

Rose grinned, "No spoilers, Jay-Bird."

"Don't make me break your face, Thorn-Head."

Nightwing inwardly sighed as Superman and Batman used the lull in conversation as an opportunity to answer a League call and take their leave, the zeta tubes announcing their departure, while M'Gann, standing in the doorway with the others looked confused; "Are they... Flirting?"

"Uh, probably." Kid Flash said, tilting his head, "With these kinds of people it's hard to tell." Then he too was frowning, "Anyway, back on point, who's the new guy?"

Nightwing looked to Batgirl, who nodded; "Like Ravager said, 'no spoilers'."

Nightwing nodded and turned back to the team, gesturing in the direction of Red Hood, who had returned to hacking the lock on Ravager's cell.

"This is Red Hood, he is a good guy, in case you missed the bat-symbol on his chest while he was trying to break Rose out of prison, again."

There was silence for half a second, then-

"What do you mean 'again'?!" Red Hood exploded, "I've never broken anyone out of prison in my life! I was let out, by you."

Ravager coughed, "What about Roy?" but she didn't wait for an answer before she was off too, "And you!" through the glass she pointed at Nightwing, "What d'you mean 'again'?"

At this point Kid Flash shifted slightly, a smirk on his face; "Wow dejavu much?"

Ravager scowled, "Zip it, West. Anyway, I've never been to prison in my life!"

This time it was Tigress' turn to cough in amusement and Ravager's scowl deepened; "It was temporary insanity, cleared with eighteen months of therapy, ask the judge."

Tigress never got he chance to retort because, at that moment, two more people burst into the already crowded room, scattering it's occupants in all directions. Arsenal came first, still toting his time-machine and dragging Starfire behind him.

"Found her!" he called out, unnecessarily gesturing at the princess.

Kid Flash's eyes nearly popped out, and Artemis took the opportunity to use her free hand (the other was covering Robin's eyes) to smack the speedster around the head. Starfire, unaware of the stir her arrival had caused took in the scene with a mild scowl.

"Stand aside." she said, and Red Hood, still working on the lock, scrambled to get out the way.

Ravager's eye widened and she too threw herself to one side as Starfire raised a fist and let loose a torrent of green energy levelled at the bullet-proof glass. It shattered and Ravager stood, picking glass out of her hair and accepting Red Hood's helping hand as she climbed through the hole in the wall.

"A little warning, next time, Princess?" Red Hood grumbled.

"I do not see that it is necessary." Starfire replied, "Now, I think it would be prudent to take our leave, before-"

They never heard the end of that sentence, as at that moment every light in Mount Justice went out with a ominous groan, leaving the place in total darkness.

There was a scramble to activate night vision, and Starfire raised a hand so everyone else could see. Ravager snapped her fingers in Kid Flash's direction and he took the hint, disappearing and reappearing moments later with her cowl.

"Thank you." she slipped it on and activated the night vision, the lens glowing green.

"Anyone got an idea on what happened?"

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><p><strong>AN: Dun, dun duuuuun!<strong>

**I hope you enjoyed that!**

**Leave me a review and let me know-**

**See you with the next chapter!**


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: Back Again!**

**This one's kind of short, so sorry about that, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.**

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><p><strong><span>Blue Bird: Chapter 16<span>**

Starfire raised her hand, looking around with an ill-disguised air of confusion.

"What happened?"

"The power's out." Robin had activated his holo-computer, shining a dim blue light across the room as he typed away.

"That... Shouldn't have happened." Batgirl said, staring over the boy's shoulder, "The cave's systems are tamper proof, you'd need an EMP-"

"Which, in this case, wouldn't have been used because bird boy's glove and everyone's night vision is still running."

Everyone looked at Kid Flash and he shifted under the collective gaze; "Science whiz, remember?"

"Any idea what caused it?" Tigress and Artemis spoke in unison, and Red Hood stifled a cough of amusement.

"Not a clue." Robin said, "Right now the only possibility I'm seeing would be if someone cut the wires... from the inside."

Ravager snorted- "Well, it wasn't one of us, all the possible criminals are in this room- and have been pretty much the entire time."

"Ravager is correct." Aqualad said, "There is no way to delay a cut to the cave's power system, so Red Hood and his associates are not suspects- neither is Ravager, as she was first under the supervision of Batman and Superman, then our own."

"I'd make a sarcastic comment, Kaldur, but you don't know me yet, so why bother?" Ravager smirked slightly.

"That still doesn't leave us any closer to figuring out who is behind it though," Nightwing said, tapping his chin, "Miss M, can you make contact with the guys in the hangar?"

M'Gann looked surprised at the question, and hesitated, looking between Nightwing and Aqualad, at the latter's nod she put a hand to her temple; "They're all there, sealed in, but alive and uninjured."

"What about zeta tubes?" Wally asked, "Is there any way of anyone getting out and contacting the League?"

"No." Robin said, still looking at his computer, "Zetas offline."

"And even if they weren't, there isn't anyone with access in the hangar anyway." Arsenal muttered.

"Uh, what about future him?" Artemis jerked her thumb in Wally's direction.

"Negative." Red Hood said, "The thing reads DNA, retina and basics, like height and weight. In case you hadn't noticed- Fleet Feet is a bit taller in the future."

"You're avoiding the subject."

Everyone jumped at Superboy's voice, apparently they had forgotten he was also standing there, he grunted and continued; "What about this?"

There was yelp as he accidentally hit Arsenal while gesturing at the ambient darkness.

"The power shortage?" Batgirl asked, "What about it?"

"The power someone cut off." Tigress corrected her, "It would seem we have an intruder."

"What, another one?" Wally quipped.

There was a click of a crossbow bolt falling into place and Nightwing groaned slightly; "Put the crossbow down, Artemis."

"Call it self-defence." Tigress snapped back, "If we're attacked I don't want to go unarmed."

"Attacked?" Ravager's voice took on a hard edge; "So that's what's happening."

"Well- wait, what?" Red Hood's voice sounded confused.

"Before your time, Hood." Ravager said, "But Slade always made sure I knew exactly who I was meant to be imitating."

"I have heard about that fight." Starfire said, "I take it you are referring to Grant?"

Ravager nodded, then remembered that half the assembled company couldn't see her; "Yeah."

"What makes you so sure?" Tigress asked.

"Woah, wait. What are we sure-maybe-not-sure about?" Wally's voice cut into the conversation, confusion now evident.

"I am not getting in the way of this one." Arsenal muttered, "I say anyone who is not meant to be here should scram now before Rose's evil older brother turns up."

"Which one?" Ravager said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"The evil one- who is inherently evil and started the family tradition of fish scales." Tigress said, she still hadn't lowered the crossbow.

Nightwing stepped forwards at the same time as Ravager, somehow getting between the two women before things turned nasty. "I agree with Arsenal. If what we think is happening is happening then anyone from the future needs to hide and not interfere."

"Why not?" M'Gann asked, a note of fear in her voice, "If you can help us-"

"This is a defining moment, Megs." Tigress said, "No interfering from us, no changes to what this event does to the timeline."

"But you've interfered before." Artemis pointed out, "With that meta facility in London, the ghosts in Fawcett- the bunker in Bludhaven. What about all of that?"

"Those moments were in flux." Starfire said, "They had no great bearing on the outcome of our futures. This however, does."

"So we are gone." Arsenal was already half in an air vent as he spoke, and with in seconds Tigress was following him.

Ravager raised an eyebrow at Nightwing as Batgirl climbed in too, quickly followed by Starfire.

Red Hood offered Ravager a leg up, which she refused, disappearing into the vent with a gleam of silver fish scales. Red Hood followed, leaving Nightwing alone with the younger counterparts of his former team.

"Good luck."

Then he too was gone.


	17. Chapter 17

**AN: Well, as per requests there is some action here- and because of that this chapter is double the length of the other chapters-**

**I hope you enjoy it!**

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><p><strong><span>Blue Bird: Chapter 17<span>**

Arsenal lead the way through the system of air vents; all seven of the remaining time travellers were silent. Then Ravager gasped, an idea coming to her.

"Take a left."

Arsenal stopped, and Tigress promptly crashed into him, as he twisted around to look at the former assassin; "What?"

"If we're going to sneak around hiding, the least we could do is give the team a little light, y'know so they can tell who they're hitting?"

Arsenal shrugged; "Fair enough, I think." He looked from Red Hood to Nightwing; "What do you guys think?"

Nightwing nodded; "There's nothing in the history books to say we can't."

Red Hood forced out a laugh, "Dear God, you sound like Impulse. As for me, anything works so long as I don't have to stare at Patchey's butt for much longer."

"What's wrong with my butt?" Ravager asked, driving her foot back into the front of Hood's helmet.

"Where to start..." he muttered.

"How about, 'it's not Nightwing's'?" Batgirl suggested.

There was a smattering of laughter and the group moved on, once again in silence. Occasionally taking lefts and rights until Nightwing called out for them to stop, and kicked downwards; jumping down into the generator room, which was in total darkness.

Tigress sighed heavily through her nose and Starfire raised her fist, illuminating the room with green light.

Ravager, Red Hood, Batgirl and Nightwing all pulled flashlights from their utility belts and turned them on. Nightwing threw his to Tigress, who caught it, looking surprised- "What's this for?"

"Light." Nightwing replied dryly, "Since you don't have any particular skill in electronics you're gonna have to stand there and hold that until the wiring's fixed."

He walked off down an isle of computer consoles, with Batgirl in hot pursuit; Tigress looked from Starfire, to Arsenal, then to Ravager- her eyes barely lingering on Red Hood, who had also taken off after his brother.

"Is he always that snarky?"

All three managed to pull of shrugging in unison. Tigress frowned- "Okay, so your friend, ex and teacher- and you don't know all that much about him?"

"Nightwing and I haven't spoken properly in some time." Starfire admitted, "He has... changed."

Arsenal shrugged again; "Didn't meet him 'til he was already Nightwing, and let's just say we weren't exactly friends."

The two exchanged glances and walked, more slowly, away- leaving Tigress and Ravager alone with two flashlights.

Tigress swung hers so it was shining in Ravager's face, the younger woman winced slightly at the sudden light.

"And you?"

Ravager's eyebrows, beneath her cowl, rose. "Between you and me, Artemis? Nightwing doesn't share- everything he has done for me, training me, giving me a spot on the team, all that stuff- it's all been some clever way to get back at my dad for what happened with, well, everything."

Tigress' hard expression softened slightly; "Pawn in the game?"

"More like a- how does the phrase go? 'A good soldier'." Ravager replied, setting off down the same passage as everyone else. "Now shut up and come on; or dear, sweet older brother Grant is gonna be making a meal of your young self before we get the lights on."

Tigress snorted in disbelief and followed.

Elsewhere in the cave the team had left the holding area and had reassembled in the biggest area they had, the training room.

It seemed a very long time since Nightwing had first dashed through, and fought Batman to a tie where they were currently standing.

"What do we do?" Artemis asked, looking to Kaldur in the dim light of a flashlight Robin had handed her from his utility belt.

The boy wonder himself was crouched by everyone's knees, holoscreen open; desperately trying to reinstate any sort of communication with the League, or the time travellers in the hangar. He paused in his typing when everyone fell silent, and glanced upwards- only to find everyone staring at him.

"What?" He frowned.

"Well, you have been to the future." Wally pointed out. "If anyone would know what's going on it would be you."

"I was ten years in the future." Robin replied, "Not the place you wanna be if you're trying to find out about the here and now."

"That girl, Ravager, said she was on bird-sitting duty." Artemis said, "Didn't you guys, I dunno, talk?"

"We played twenty questions." Robin replied dryly, "Her family life didn't come up beyond her implying that her father was an asshole."

"You're a detective." Superboy said, "Work it out."

"Using what?" Robin asked, "I've got no intel, no info. I can't do the equation unless I've got all the variables."

"You have what they said." M'Gann said; "The future version of Roy? He mentioned 'Rose's evil older brother'. Well, he could either be referring to Starfire or Ravager- as he was using a woman's name."

"Not necessarily." Wally said, "He could have been talking about someone who wasn't there with us."

"No, he was talking about Rose 'Ravager' Wilson. Also known as Patchey, Thorn Face, Cyclops, That Psycho and That Bitch." Robin deadpanned.

Everyone glanced down at him again, and Artemis' eyebrows rose; "Well, you clearly know her well."

Robin smirked; "No, she tried to offload 'bird sitting duty' onto just about anyone she could manage; including the future yous, Booster Gold, some guy named Static and a future generation of Robins; one of whom is better known as 'Swan Queen'."

"And they all shared their nicknames for her with you?" Wally asked.

"Actually it kinda... slipped out with most of them." Robin cracked a smile, "But back to the important stuff, we have no power to anything-"

At that moment the lights flickered on, and Robin swiftly amended his statement; "Except the lights apparently."

Kaldur looked to M'Gann and she nodded, putting a hand to her temple; Everyone online?

There was a general murmur of assent, and several psychic yelps of surprise as Miss Martian's telepathic link connected the minds of the time travellers in the generator room.

'Did it work?' Nightwing's telepathic voice asked.

'If, by that, you mean 'are the lights back on' then yeah, it worked.' Artemis replied.

'Good' Even telepathically, Tigress sounded irritated, 'I was almost starting to lose all feeling in my arms.'

Ravager psychically snorted with amusement.

'We need to know, guys.' Robin cut in, 'Who are we fighting?'

'We can't give you a name.' Nightwing replied quickly, 'You need to find out from him. Just be ready to work as a team, fight smart and try not to get him killed- that just smashes open a whole new kettle of fish that you really don't want to open.'

'Why would we kill him?' Artemis asked, 'We're supposed to be the good guys.'

'It's not so much that you'd kill him...' Batgirl said, trailing off, unsure of how to continue.

'It's more that he's thick enough to get himself killed.' Red Hood finished, 'And like Golden Boy said, the backlash from that would be astronomical.'

'Big word's Jay Bird.' Ravager mocked, 'You sure you know what they mean?'

'She gets more pissy when she's nervous.' Arsenal informed the team, 'Bring on the snark.'

It was at that moment that footsteps sounded down one of the still dark corridors, and suddenly the team was on edge, falling into battle stances and tensing, ready for an attack.

'Is that one of you?' M'Gann asked.

The future team members all replied in the negative- 'We're in the vents.' Starfire said, 'Nightwing is just finishing reinstating the lights.'

'No need.' Robin replied, 'We see him.'

The footsteps stopped, the owner's feet the only part of him that was visible, then the light's flickered on and the team saw him.

A broad chested man in black and silver body armour that seemed almost too familiar. Silver armour ran across his arms and shoulders in scales; a belt of ammunition crossed his chest and, alongside the pistols resting on his hips, he had a sword strapped to his back.

The top half of his face was hidden by a silver cowl- his mouth, visible beneath it, was set in a feral grin.

It was easy to see where Ravager had gotten the inspiration for her costume.

The resemblance to her evil older brother was uncanny.

As the young man stood there Artemis psychically snorted- 'Cyclops, this is your elder brother?'

'Not all of us can have a fully badass family, Sporty.' Ravager snapped- 'My family happens to have two losers in it- but that might just be because my family is bigger and more evil than yours.'

Artemis was clearly coming up with a retort, but their intruder was moving and she lost her chance as everyone tensed even more- ready for fight.

But he didn't attack.

He drew his sword, and paced around the team, dragging the blade behind him- it's point slithered across the floor with a metallic hiss.

"Y'know, I don't get it." He said- his voice was good natured but with a hard, sarcastic edge to it- "When my employer saw you guys at that facility, there were two more of you."

"Well, he was clearly mistaken." Aqualad said, by way of reply, "As you can see, there are only the six of us."

"Hmm, I looked at the footage, there was definitely another chick and another guy." the intruder smirked and stopped pacing- "You arrested the chick because she was dressed like Deathstroke."

Artemis notched an arrow- "Would you like to imitate her? I'm sure I could take out one of your eyes-"

"Y'know, if you ask real nice." Wally put in with a smirk, "Mr Fishscales."

"That would be Ravager, to you, Flash Boy." The guy said, "And, honestly? I don't care if I got your name wrong- because I know you're gonna correct me on it. I'm here to kill you. End of."

"And I don't suppose asking you nicely to get the hell out of our house is gonna dissuade you, is it?" Robin said, drawing a pair of eskrima sticks as he spoke.

"Not a chance." The Not-Ravager said, "Glad to know one of you gets it."

Faster than most of the team could blink, he launched at them, and the teenagers scattered. Wally circled around their attacker's back, scooping up Artemis bridal style as Not-Ravager brought his sword down on Kaldur, who barely had time to summon a shield with his water-bearers.

'There is no way a normal person could move that fast.' Artemis said, via the mental link.

'Uh, Artemis, we're six teenage superheroes, four of us have powers and two of us are extraterrestrial in origin. Our lives don't revolve around 'normal'.' Robin retorted from his perch in the rafters.

'Does anyone actually have a plan?' Wally asked, 'Or are we just trying to tire him out?'

'That'll never work.'

Nightwing's reentering the conversation barely registered except for a snort from the team archer.

'Decided to help us out then? I guess it's easy to disregard a fight when your life and your friends aren't on the line.'

'Low blow, Artemis.' Nightwing's 'voice' had suddenly gone very cold- 'As it so happens my life is on the line. I just thought I'd let you fight your own fights. Remembering- of course- that you all hate it when the League runs interference and that whole time-stream snafu.'

There was mental silence for a few seconds, while Superboy roared and smashed into Not-Ravager side on.

'What do you suggest?' Kaldur asked.

'Work as a team. A unit.' Nightwing said- 'Attack on all fronts. He's faster, stronger, more hard waring- but I'd like to see him take on all six of you at once.'

'Your wish is their command.' Tigress said- 'Hop to it juniors! Nightwing said fight like a team.'

Wally circled around the team's attacker, as Robin dropped from the ceiling- landing squarely on the older man's head- the team was now arranged in a circle around Not-Ravager, and he grinned.

"What are you so happy about Fishscales?" Artemis snarled; levelling an arrow of the pointy variety at him.

"You're better than I thought." He smirked, "That's good, I always like a challenge."

He charged again, and before any of them could react, sliced through Artemis' bow like it was paper and landed a blow square to her shoulder- the harsh pop, followed by a cry of pain told them that it was dislocated-

"Artemis!" Wally was moving again, slamming into the guy just as Superboy had done, and with the same effect- Wally skidded backwards, still on his feet, but staggering- clutching a wound to his shoulder from a small dagger that had materialised in Not-Ravager's hand.

He paused, waiting for the others to get in position, groping for an insult in his suddenly empty arsenal.

"Is that all you got, you walking paperclip?"

Robin, from somewhere on Wally's left, gave the speedster a very odd look.

'Walking paperclip?' Nightwing mentally asked, 'Dude, that was lame even by your standards.'

'Well excuse him.' Ravager butted in, 'Not all of us can be king of the quips.'

'Holy burn Batman!' Arsenal interjected, and the present team tuned them out- focusing instead on Not-Ravager.

'Any ideas?' Wally asked.

'See if he likes the sound of his own voice.' Robin advised, 'It's been known to happen.'

Wally took point, setting his customary smirk in place- "So, 'Ravager' huh? Where'd you get that- a can of toilet cleaner?"

Not-Ravager growled, and swung his sword in a wide arc, narrowly missing the speedster's head as he doubled around for another blow. Catching the attacker head-on as he jeered; "Is that all you got? Dude, you fight like a girl."

"I'm sure you won't mind if I take that as a compliment." Not-Ravager replied, "Every girl I've ever met has been a very keen fighter."

"What girls have you been dating?" Wally smirked; "Doesn't sound too fun if they're beating the snot outta you."

"He does actually have a point KF." Robin said, rolling behind Not-Ravager and landing a kick to the back of his knees; "I mean- not including the superpowered ladies we know- there's Black Canary, Artemis, Ra- One-Eye, Catwoman-"

"Dude, you know Catwoman- the rest of us don't really wanna."

"And you don't know that 'One-Eye' has no powers. M'Gann put in, using a wave of psychic energy to blast their attacker into a corner- "She might just be good a hiding them."

"Doesn't change the fact that she's badass." Robin pointed out-

'I'm only as badass as my mentor bird boy.' Ravager said via the mental link.

'Why thank you Miss Wilson, I'm flattered that you have such a high opinion of me.' Nightwing said.

'I think she was talking about her Dad, 'Wing.' Batgirl said-

Tigress interrupted; 'Focus! We need to find a way to take him down once and for all.'

'Wear him down.' Ravager said, 'Keep him dancing until he tires out, then deliver the final blow.'

'How long will that take?' Superboy asked.

'Five to ten minutes, maybe less.' Nightwing informed them- 'If I remember correctly.'

'I'm gonna go with 'less'.' Wally said, skidding to a halt beside the downed Artemis. He looked at her; 'You okay, Harpy?'

'Peachy.'

Sure enough, Not-Ravager was already staggering, but clearly wasn't done. With a surprisingly loud roar he crashed, side on, into M'Gann, who- rather than phasing through the wall she was aimed at, crashed straight in to it, knocking a sizable hole in it with the telekinetic shield she had created around herself on impact.

Superboy was next to go- managing to maintain his temper, the clone charged, but Not-Ravager was ready for him.

The intruder side-stepped, landed a square punch to the kryptonian's side, and used his momentum to flip him into and through another wall.

'Superboy?'

'I've got him.' M'Gann said- in response to the general outcry- 'He's unconscious- I'll try to wake him so we can rejoin you.'

'Meanwhile there's the problem of Captain Paperclip.' Robin said, dodging a punch from Not-Ravager and returning in kind- sending the attacker skidding backwards towards Kaldur.

Kaldur sidestepped and used his water bearers to form a hammer; which he used to send Not-Ravager staggering towards Kid Flash, who drew back a fist punched him back into a corridor and out of sight.

'We should pursue.' Kaldur said.

'Not to second guess your leadership skills or anything, Fish Boy,' Even psychically they could hear the snark in Red Hood's voice- 'But there really isn't any point. He's already gone.'


	18. Chapter 18

**AN: Okay guys, last chapter. **

**Thanks for coming on this ride with me- thanks for reviewing and favouriting and alerting the story. Thanks for keeping up with the characters- I know there are a lot of 'em- and thanks for baring with me during the gaps between updates (I'm still sorry about those).**

**For the record- I've got two YJ multi-chapter fics in the works- I'm not abandoning the fandom or the show just because CN say it's over, so look out for those.**

**Now... Onwards!**

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><p><span>Blue Bird: Chapter 18<span>

The two teams reconvened beside the bulkhead that split the mountain in half- and Arsenal, rather than face the glares of the younger heroes, set to work tapping out a message in Morse code to whoever was listening on the other side.

"You couldn't have offered just a little help?" Artemis asked, still cradling her injured arm.

"You handled it." Red Hood pointed out.

Wally smirked- "He does have a point." The speedster brushed an imaginary speck of dust off his shoulder- "I don't see what all the fuss was about."

"He isn't the threat." Tigress said- "He's- he was- an inexperienced assbutt who can't keep up a proper fight to save his life."

"Which is probably why he is- as of now- dead." Arsenal piped up- stopping in the middle of his conversation with the future Flash. "And Fleet Feet wants to know if we can go home now."

"Tell him 'yes, as soon as we get the door open'." Nightwing said, turning back to his teammates, "Now, did anyone get a body count on the people we need to send back?"

"In total?" Batgirl began ticking people off on her fingers, "You, me, Ravager, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Impulse, Tigress, Flash, Red Hood, Starfire, Arsenal- that's it, right?"

Ravager, who had leant Batgirl her hand when the red-head had run out of fingers, nodded- "Sounds like it, and if you forgot anyone, well... they clearly aren't important enough to do any damage to the time stream."

"That is good." Starfire said, nodding, "Now our only obstacle is this door."

"Couldn't you, I dunno, blast through it?" Wally asked, "It seems to be your solution to everything else."

The speedster shrank slightly as the alien princess turned her gaze on him, bearing a thoughtful expression; "The idea is not without merit." She conceded, "However, I feel it would be somewhat counterproductive to collapse the key structure upon us-"

"Yeah," Robin cracked a smile, "Especially seeing as the vast majority of it's occupants aren't invulnerable."

"Around now is the time when I wish we had a teleporter with us." Tigress muttered.

"Which one?" Ravager asked, "Misfit, El Dorado, Red Devil, Raven or Herald?"

Tigress considered for a moment, then; "Herald. I know 'im, he's nice enough and he does time travel if we ask real nice."

"Oh, okay, I'll just call him on my inter-timeline cell phone." Ravager said, sarcasm leaking into her voice, "Oh, wait! That's right, I don't have one."

"Is everything a challenge to you?" M'Gann asked- eyes darting between the two women.

Ravager smirked; "Only the challenging things, Miss Moonbeam. Where I come from, that's the way you survive.

"Yet more proof of how well you and Tigress would get on if you stopped insulting each other for ten minutes." Batgirl said, "I'm going to work on the door; you're coming too, Wingnut."

She snagged her team leader's arm, and walked away- heading for the control panel for the door, and leaving the others in awkward silence.

"She's right, y'know." Robin said.

Tigress snorted- "She's right about everything- sometimes I think she's some kind of oracle, or something."

The ex-archer sat, and leaned back against the rocky wall, not meeting anyone's eyes, and there was silence again, aside from Arsenal's tapping against the door. Wally coughed.

"Right. Awkward." The speedster said, "Anyone wanna play twenty questions or something?"

"Twenty questions?" Ravager asked, "I pegged you more as a 'seven minutes in heaven' kinda guy."

"He played that last week at some guy's birthday party." Artemis deadpanned- "He ended up in the closet with a friend of mine, and got absolutely nowhere."

"Meanwhile the party's host ended up in the closet with his best friend- she kissed him." Batgirl called from where she and Nightwing were working on the lock.

Red Hood made a gagging noise- "I don't need to know what you may or may not have done to my siblings while hiding in closets- Barb, so I think we'll step off memory lane and stick to twenty questions."

Starfire frowned- "I am... unfamiliar with this game- explain?"

"We sit in a circle and ask each other questions until everybody's answered twenty." Ravager said, settling on the floor between Artemis and Arsenal- Robin did a headcount.

"Let's see, Arsenal, you playing?" Robin looked, enquiringly over to the final third of the outlaws, who nodded, and rapped out a quick message to the future Wally, before settling more securely beside Ravager, and patting the floor for Tigress to join him. She did, and Robin smiled, sitting between the present Wally and Artemis- "Whelming. That means we've got eleven- two questions per person each- unless the other two want to join in..."

He trailed off, glancing in their direction and shaking his head- "Never mind, let's just play."

The others settled in a circle- Starfire beside Tigress, Red Hood next to Starfire, then Aqualad, Superboy, Miss Martian and Wally.

"Who's going first?" Artemis asked.

"Got any bottles?" Arsenal asked- there was a general shaking of heads, and he shrugged, "Jus' an idea."

"I've got a crossbow bolt, if that helps?" Artemis dug around in her quiver with her good arm, and passed the object to Robin, who grinned-

"Perfect."

He placed it on the floor and spun.

It landed on Red Hood.

Ravager's grin was almost predatorial as she set the ball rolling; "Why does your helmet look like a giant red-"

"Ask the Joker." Hood deadpanned, "Next?"

"You're pissed with Bats." Arsenal said- "So why d'you wear his symbol?"

Hood glanced down at his chest, and shrugged- "Sentiment."

"The most impressive statement you ever made?" Tigress asked.

"Blowing up Black Mask's HQ with a missile launcher."

"And why is Black Mask not dead in the aftermath?" Starfire enquired-

"To paraphrase myself- 'Wow. He really can move when he wants to.'"

Arsenal snorted, and Ravager smirked- then the game continued. After Red Hood they spun the arrow, but before they could begin questioning Tigress, Batgirl cried out in success and the door opened, sending Arsenal, who was leaning against it- clutching his time machine- sprawling backwards against Impulse and Flash's legs. The elder speedster immediately stooped to help the archer to his feet.

"You took your time." Beast Boy said, materialising from Cyborg's shoulder- where he'd been roosting as some kind of alien bird.

"Sure." Red Hood deadpanned, "Because it's not like you've got two speedsters who can vibrate through solid objects, or anything."

"The cave's proofed against speedsters, Hoodie." Impulse said, "Or did you forget?"

"'Never bothered to find out." Hood shrugged, "Golden Boy, Swan Queen and Demon might be okay with working with you assbutts but I, personally, like having a well stocked fridge."

"You learn to lock your food in a special fridge under your bed-" Tigress said.

"Right next to the lead box of kryptonite." Ravager muttered.

There was a pause-

"She's kidding, right?"

Every eye was drawn to the present-day speedster, and every one of the time-travellers shook their heads. Wally, Conner and M'Gann- all of whom had been standing near Ravager at the time- very hastily took a side step away, exchanging worried glances. Tigress managed to stifle an uncharacteristic giggle, and Arsenal cracked a smile.

Starfire, however, remained unamused- she folded her arms and cleared her throat; "I believe it would be prudent if we were to return to our own time now?"

"Give me a minute?" Nightwing asked- the others nodded, and the older acrobat touched Robin's shoulder, indicating that he wanted to talk. Batman's protegee nodded, and followed.

"What's this about?"

"The future." Nightwing replied- "I have a couple of requests to make."

"No promises." Robin said.

"I'm not expecting any." Nightwing nodded in appreciation, "Just a few things- you're going to hear that you trust too easily, Hell, most of the time they'll be right- just don't loose that whole trust thing."

"So you're telling me to keep something that'll come back to bite me in the butt more times than it'll actually help me?" Beneath his mask, Robin raised an eyebrow.

"I know it's confusing, but trust me, when it helps, it saves you life- when it doesn't, you can recover from it." Nightwing said, "Example? Ravager."

Robin turned slightly so he could see the teen, she'd taken off her cowl, and was smiling- bantering with Red Hood and Arsenal, occasionally swatting away Beast Boy, who had turned into a variety of winged creatures and was trying to land on her head, shoulders, arms, hands- Robin turned back to Nightwing.

"What about her?"

"The way she sees it, she has a debt to you- a debt that'll never be paid off in her eyes- eye- that's her reason for saving people. Then- you met Damian, right?" Robin nodded- "He started out as someone no-one would want as a hero. You trusted him to turn his life around, and because of that, he did."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Robin asked, "Because you're here, shouldn't that make it preordained?"

"I wish." Nightwing said- "But something's are never that simple."

He turned to rejoin the group, and Robin followed. No-one seemed to notice their return.

"So, uh, how does this thing work?" Flash was asking, his cowl was also down- revealing the familiar- green-eyed face of Wally West, almost exactly the same as it had always been.

"Y'know, cuz- I think it's like a cosmic treadmill." Impulse said, pushing up his goggles and squinting- "Except, without the treadmill bit."

"Will it work on all eleven of us?" Batgirl asked- eying the machine with something close to the pinnacle of distrust.

"Booster Gold said it could transport up to twenty." Ravager said- "He said it was designed for the Legion of Superheroes."

"Legion of what now?" Arsenal asked.

"The L.O.S.H. is a group from the thirtieth century." Impulse said- "This piece looks like a Brainiac 5 piece- we have some in the Flash Museum."

"Why?" Red Hood asked, "I thought those prom queens were Supey's pen pals."

"Let's argue finer points later." Batgirl said- "I wanna go home before our Batman gets back from Infinity Island."

"Agreed." Cyborg said- "Let's say our goodbyes and fire it up."

People shook hands in silence, Red Hood gave a two fingered salute, and Tigress tried to avoid the speedsters. Then all eleven of the time travellers stood together in the middle of the room, while the time machine at Arsenal's feet began to warm up.

"Everyone say 'Lexcorp'." Arsenal said.

"I'd prefer to say 'Smallville'." Nightwing countered, and Batgirl trod on his foot.

"This. Is. All. Your. Fault." She growled.

Then the time machine activated, and they were gone. Wally sighed in relief- "Finally."

"We never did find out who Nightwing was." M'Gann pointed out.

"Just one of life's mysteries, I guess." Artemis said.

Robin laughed, and the others stared.

"I wouldn't say it's a mystery, guys." The teen wonder grinned. "It was kinda obvious."

"Perhaps you would care to enlighten us, Robin." Kaldur said.

Robin's smirk widened. "How could you not see it?" He asked.

"See what?" Wally countered.

"Nightwing was me!"

~fin~


End file.
